The Bakers' Fiasco
by Waterlilies
Summary: AU. The cycle never seems to end at Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery with never ending flour fights, surprised icing attacks, and chocolate battles. How does the cast of G-W get involved?
1. Duo's Fiasco

~*~ Here's a little short fic that was inspired by going to Baskin Robbins one night. ^_^ Hope you all enjoy it. Disclaimers go as usual, I do not own Gundam Wing. ~*~  
  
********  
  
Prologue:  
  
Duo and Wufei were standing outside of their new location for their bakery. The two decided that it would be perfect to join in a partnership in creating their new business of creating bakery goods. The two were admiring their new bakery and for a while, they were pondering on how to name their new founded bakery.  
  
For the rest of the day, they drew up possible designs for their sign, "How about Maxwell's and Chang's Bakery," asked Duo.  
  
"It doesn't seem right. I should have my name first since I thought about having this bakery in the first place. How about Nataku's Bake O'Rama? There's a nice ring to it."  
  
"Um. There's one problem. Where's MY name in it?"  
  
"Oh. You don't have to have your name in the sign. As long were having some business, it will suffice."  
  
"Oh really. Well how about this gesture."  
  
Right then, Duo ran outside and climbed the ladder leading to their newly purchased white sign and started to outline his idea with a paintbrush. Within fifteen minutes, a thin outline in black paint can be seen and it read, "Shinigami's Bakery." But in between Shinigami's and Bakery, there was a little space left.  
  
Wufei's eyes just widened, "What in the hell are you doing to our sign? I don't even see MY name up there. And besides, there's hardly any room left."  
  
"That can be fixed."  
  
Duo then outlined diagonally on what was left on the white sign, and it read, "Chang's." "How's that?"  
  
"I give up. That'll do. But your gonna pay for that! One day, mark my words."  
  
********  
  
"Welcome to Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery. How can I be of service?" Out in the corner of the room, Wufei moaned as Duo was trying to flirt with one of the customers.  
  
"Well..um. I'll like to order two éclairs and three powder donuts, if you have them."  
  
"Terrific choice. Anything else?"  
  
"That'll do." Wufei went back towards the kitchen and brought out a fresh tray of baked raisin bread along with the powder donuts, while Duo went to the far counter and picked two éclairs. He then handed them over to the girl with cornflower blue eyes and coolly said, "Have a nice day!"  
  
She winked in response, "I guess I should be coming here more often."  
  
Wufei stared at him from his tray of bread, and complained, "You know, Duo, you shouldn't be hitting on every girl you see."  
  
"I know, but I can't help myself. Maybe it's the sweetness from baking cakes, cupcakes, and bread all the time." He gave out an evil chuckle, pretending to be some lunatic.  
  
Wufei then threw his hands up in the air, "I give up. Why do I even bother? I'm heading out for a while to get more supplies. I expect this place in to be in one whole piece when I get back. I'm warning you, DO NOT leave the oven unattended. God knows what happened last time; an overgrown cake was popping out of the oven and everything was a mess."  
  
"Oh come on Chang has some faith in me. Please?!?" He then showed him a cute puppy dog look.  
  
"I'm warning you!" Wufei then left, slamming the door behind him, which made the bells on the door jingle angrily.  
  
"I'm glad he's out for a while. Let's see what I can do." He stealthily went over to Wufei's counter and saw an order form for three-dozen chocolate chip cookies for a person named Quatre Winner. "This shouldn't be too bad. Oh what the heck, how hard can it be to make chocolate chip cookies."  
  
In the kitchen, Duo found the ingredients and placed his chef hat on. "All right, it's baking time." For twenty minutes, he crazily stirred the doughy mixture not realizing that he forgot to look at one major detail on the order form. They were due in a half an hour.  
  
After placing small spoonfuls on three cookie sheets and placing them in the oven that was already preheated, the jingle sound was heard again. Duo decided to head out and surprise Wufei. For a second he paused and grabbed a handful of flour in his hand, and before he realized who it was, it was too late. A blond hair boy was sacked with flour from head to toe. Duo's jaw just dropped immediately and ran over to his side, carefully dusting the flour off.  
  
"What do you think you are doing? Do you know who I am?"  
  
Duo made a slow gulping sound down his throat. "Let me guess, you're Quatre Winner." He then cleared his throat one more time, "I'm so sorry about this, I thought you were my supervisor. Um..your cookies are almost ready."  
  
"I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but those cookies should have been ready by now. I was supposed to pick them up right now."  
  
"But.."  
  
"No buts. I don't see why Relena wanted to buy cookies from here. My patience right now is growing thinner."  
  
"How about a complimentary cup of coffee?"  
  
"I guess that'll do for now. I have to be back at her office in twenty minutes since she's having a party for her staff."  
  
Just then the oven alarm went off and Duo let out a sigh of relief. "One moment please." He sneaked towards the kitchen and mumbled, "Phew that was close." He carefully lifted each of the cookies with a spatula and placed them in a pink box.  
  
"That'll be twenty dollars."  
  
"Here." Quatre then gave him the twenty dollars.  
  
"Have a nice day."  
  
Right then, Wufei stepped through the door, carrying an armful of supplies. Along with him, a lady with two braids of spiraled hair also appeared. "Where do you want these?"  
  
"Over there by the back counter, where the bread trays are."  
  
"I'll check you out later."  
  
Wufei nodded in response, while Duo stood there, trying to comprehend what had just happened. At the same time, Wufei looked over at their customer, who was still dusted slightly in flour.  
  
"I guess you found everything all right?"  
  
Quatre gave out a little sigh of agitation. "You can expect that Relena Peacecraft will not be coming here in the near future. Good day to the both of you." With that, Quatre ran over to the car that was parked in a nearby street.  
  
"What happened to you," questioned Trowa.  
  
"Lets just say that going to the bakery was eventful and that one of the bakers is very, VERY crazy. He threw a handful of flour right at me. Just drive me back to the embassy. Relena will have a fit when she sees me like this. On top of that, I'm late with the cookies!"  
  
"Fair enough."  
  
Meanwhile back at the bakery, Wufei threw a fit at Duo.  
  
"What were you thinking of throwing flour at a staff member of Relena Peacecraft? I'm glad that he didn't press any charges of the sort to shut this bakery down."  
  
Duo tried to defend his position, "I thought it was you, but I guessed wrong."  
  
"Guess wronged? Why I'll show you. You're lucky that Nataku isn't here with me right now."  
  
With that, Duo sensed he was going to be in big trouble. The two ended up chasing one another in the kitchen with Wufei carrying a bucket of flour after him.  
  
"This will teach you a lesson."  
  
Right then an avalanche of flour fell on Duo and the whole entire kitchen became engulf in white dust. As the two were bickering still, their front door rang and someone had entered.  
  
~*~ How was that? It's different from my usual fics, but anyway, chapter 2 is still in progress. Hopefully, it will be posted soon! Bye for now. ^-^ 


	2. The Flour Dilemma

Hey everyone! Here's chapter 2. Disclaimers go as usual, I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
*****  
  
  
  
The Flour Dilemma  
  
The man with long white hair suddenly cleared his throat and yelled, "Is anyone going to take my order anytime soon?"  
  
Duo and Wufei paused in their brief argument. "Just one moment, sir. I'm trying to teach my partner here a lesson in manners."  
  
The two continued to duke it out with pots and pans flying in the kitchen. Meanwhile the man was curiously looking at pictures of wedding cakes that were posted on the pale yellow walls of the bakery. He pondered for a while on which designs his cake should have, "I wonder if she would like a three tier cake or a cake with separate layers. This is going to drive me crazy."  
  
After three minutes had passed by, Wufei emerged victoriously from the kitchen but with flour all over his crisp clean cooking uniform. He briefly dusted himself off, but gave a deadly stare towards the kitchen door.  
  
"Sorry about that. How can I help you?"  
  
"I was wondering how much do your wedding cakes cost here? My fiancé and I are having a wedding in a month or so, and somehow we both manage to get lost in the details that we forgot about the wedding cake, itself."  
  
"They usually cost between $150-$250 depending upon what layout you two want and the filling and the decorations."  
  
"The prices seem reasonable."  
  
"We're the cheapest in town. If you want something more to your tastes, you can try another bakery that is just two blocks down from here."  
  
"This will do. Is it all right if I bring my fiancé along with me when we pick out the cake itself."  
  
Wufei looked a little disgruntled but replied, "That'll be fine. When do you think you'll come back?"  
  
"How about this coming Thursday? She's picky about details. You know how women are."  
  
"I know what you mean. Thursday will be fine."  
  
With that the man had left, Wufei then let out a sigh of relief and headed straight back towards the kitchen. In there, Duo was already cleaning up the powdered room along with the pots and pans. For the rest of the day, the two were on each other's nerves, but soon they were baking again. Doing business as usual.  
  
Later on in the evening, Quatre finally made it to Relena's staff party. When he knocked on the door, he was hoping that Relena herself wasn't answering the door, but as luck would have it, she did.  
  
She tried holding in her laugh, "What happened to you? You look like a ghost."  
  
"Laugh all you want. Some crazy baker threw flour at me, thinking I was his partner. Here are the cookies you wanted."  
  
"Thank you, Quatre. If I had known you were getting yourself floured in the process, I would have sent Heero to do the job for me."  
  
"Very funny."  
  
Quatre then entered the embassy and he was still covered in a faint layer of flour. Everyone at the party wondered what had happened to him, even Heero.  
  
"What happened to you?"  
  
"Nothing, I'm leaving now. I think I had enough for today."  
  
He walked over to Relena and thanked her for her hospitality. At the same time, Relena begged him to stay, "But you stayed here for an hour, why don't stay for another hour."  
  
"Thanks anyway. But, I have to go now. I'll see you tomorrow."  
  
"All right then, Quatre. Good night."  
  
"Good night."  
  
With that the floured blond hair boy went out the door, while Relena attended to the rest of her guests. She caught the eye of one of them standing in the far off corner.  
  
"What's eating him?"  
  
"He was floured by a baker at the local bakery near here."  
  
"Floured by a baker. Now this is a story that I won't believe."  
  
"I think Quatre will never go there again, even if I asked him since he is my personal secretary. Oh well, I might need to find a new runner for the job in going to this bakery. Who knows you might even have to."  
  
Heero shrugged and then walked away, he continued to monitor the party to see if there were any breaches in security, while Relena went back to her guests as usual.  
  
****  
  
Three days had passed, and it was now Thursday. Duo and Wufei began their usual cleanup routine on their bakery, making sure that each oven was in proper working conditions, and that they had the necessary supplies on their flour, sugar, frosting, etc.  
  
Just then their front door rang with the usual jingle of the bells, and when Wufei stepped out, he noticed that it was the same cornflower blue eyes girl that came a couple of days ago.  
  
"Hi. Is Duo here?"  
  
Wufei's face just dropped and yelled out Duo's name. Within a matter of less than a second, he popped out from the kitchen door and started talking to the customer.  
  
"Hey babe. How have you been?"  
  
"I've been all right. I couldn't resist the éclairs and the powdered donuts. I think I'll have a dozen powdered donuts for today. The place that I work for loved the donuts."  
  
"I'm glad to hear it." Duo then ran off to the countered with the donuts and selected the best-powdered ones. He even managed to slip in an éclair for the girl.  
  
"Here you go. It'll be $7."  
  
"That's cheap. Aren't you undercharging me?"  
  
"Don't worry, the rest is on the house."  
  
"Thanks." She gave him the money and winked at him.  
  
"Wait!! I didn't even get your name!!"  
  
"It's Hilde." She then left the building. While, Duo just slumped in one of the nearby wooden stools and showed love in his eyes.  
  
Wufei looked at Duo's expression, "This disgusts me. Duo you shouldn't be lazy on the job right now. We need to plan out a cake design for a customer that's coming in another two hours."  
  
Duo just looked on and didn't pay any attention to what Wufei was telling him.  
  
"Whatever you say, Woofi."  
  
"Earth to Duo. We still have a job to attend to."  
  
"All right, all right. Can't a guy around here fall in love in peace?"  
  
****  
  
Meanwhile back at the embassy, everything was in order and business was as usual with Relena handling some of the foreign policy issues between several countries while Heero was watching guard.  
  
Right then, Quatre came in with the morning Daily Herald for Relena, while at the same time he was scheduling appointments for Relena on his hands free cell phone.  
  
"Good morning everyone. Relena you'll have an appointment to meet with a head of a charity drive that you signed up about three months ago around one in the afternoon. Is that fine with you?"  
  
"Yes, Quatre that's fine. But the meeting will have to be less than twenty minutes since some ambassadors from England are coming here to visit. By the way, would you mind if you went back to the bakery to buy some desserts for our guests?"  
  
Quatre's face then went white with sweat beads forming on his forehead.  
  
"Um.um.all right then. I wouldn't mind, but as long I don't get sacked by flour again by that crazy baker that has the long braid running down his back, well hopefully."  
  
Quatre then left the embassy while Trowa drove him to Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery. Trowa could sense the fear in Quatre's eyes and that the sweat beads were still on his head.  
  
"You know. It's not going to be the end of the world. Stop being nervous. It was just an honest mistake when that baker threw the flour over you."  
  
"I know. I know. But, he was so rude and all. Maybe I should buy my own sack of flour and surprise him. Hehe. Let him get his own taste of his medicine. Could we make a quick stop at the grocery store, I need to run in there."  
  
"All right, but I warned you."  
  
Within the five minutes, Quatre came back with a small sack of low-grade flour.  
  
"This will be sweet revenge."  
  
"Don't you think you're acting a little childish?"  
  
"Who me. Oh no, just a friendly wake up call for the baker. That's all."  
  
"You're sure that your plan won't backfire."  
  
"I'm sure."  
  
Right then, Trowa had pulled up into the front part of the bakery. Everything was set and Quatre put his plan into action by concealing a handful of flour in a bag in his coat pocket. When he entered, the door jingled as usual, but no one seemed to be around when he entered. For two minutes, he stood in silence listening to anything that could be heard. As he was looking at the scrumptious chocolate éclairs, sounds of pans crashing in the kitchen could be heard.  
  
"I'll get you, Duo. For messing everything again."  
  
"Honestly, I'm sorry Wufei."  
  
"Sorry won't do. Oh no." Wufei then looked at his cake, which was beginning to look more like the Leaning Tower of Piza. He then screamed, "The cake, it's going to fall over. I've been working on that cake for over three hours now and with its three layers. Why you!!"  
  
"Now, now Wufei. Is this a way to treat your workaholic partner?"  
  
Wufei then gave a deadly war cry.  
  
Duo's eyes then bulged from his sockets, "I guess not."  
  
The two then ran out of the kitchen and into the front of the bakery where Quatre just stood in shock and horror as he saw two people in chefs hat run out madly after one another.  
  
Back in the kitchen, Wufei and Duo grabbed a handful of flour in each of their hands and ran out their kitchen door again. As fate would have, Quatre stood innocently off to the side and as he saw the two again, he knew that it wasn't his day with this bakery again.  
  
Quatre then thought in his mind, "Here I go again!"  
  
In matter of minutes, he was in the crossfire of two crazy bakers. With Duo and Wufei running in circles around Quatre, the two eventually threw their flour pile at each other, not realizing that Quatre was there in the middle of their friendly fire.  
  
Once the room was in engulfed in flour dust, Quatre managed to get his bag of flour out and dumped it on the two fighting bakers.  
  
Duo then angrily yelled out, "Hey why did you do that for mister?"  
  
But once he opened his eyes again, he realized whom he was talking to and knew that he was in for it for sure, while at the same time, Wufei tried to regain his composure. And right then, a couple had entered the bakery with shock in their eyes.  
  
*****  
  
How was that for chapter 2? It seems like Quatre is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hopefully his luck will change eventually :) who knows? Until next time!! 


	3. Sweet Revenge

Hi everyone, disclaimers go as usual, I don't own Gundam Wing, so please do not sue me. Without further ado, here's chapter 3! ^-^  
  
  
  
*****  
  
Sweet Revenge  
  
With Noin and Milliardo looking onto the scene, they were both wondering if they went to the correct bakery.  
  
"Honey, you sure were supposed to be here? I think we should go somewhere else. I don't want these two bakers near our wedding cake. What happens if the cake topples during our reception? That would be a disaster all in itself."  
  
Milliardo nodded in response, "Good point." He then looked at the baker who helped him just three days ago, "Look mister. I don't know what you're trying to pull here. If you aren't ready to accept our business, we'll just go to the bakery that you recommended to me before. My fiancé and I don't have time to waste, since our wedding is just weeks away from now."  
  
Wufei immediately stood up, "But wait. Just wait around for a couple of minutes. I'm sure we can work something out."  
  
In response, Milliardo became agitated, "I'm tired of these excuses. You might as well help the gentleman that was caught in the middle of one of your flour wars with your other baker. I believe he is still on the floor covered in flour. Good day to you then. Come on darling. Let's go somewhere else, where the hospitality is much better."  
  
"You said it."  
  
With that the couple left. After the tension in the room had been cleared, another conflict was boiling within Wufei. By then, Wufei's face began to turn bright red and he went straight to Duo.  
  
"What in the hell were you thinking? WE just lost two prospective customers thanks to you."  
  
"What do you mean, IT was my fault? You threw flour at me first."  
  
"We'll see about that." Right then the two started their chase again.  
  
At the same time, Quatre regained his stance and scrambled for more flour from his bag. He threw it at the two crazy bakers and screamed, "EXCUSE ME!!! Will you two quit bickering at one another? I have been waiting here for over ten minutes. I HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!!"  
  
Duo and Wufei immediately stopped dead in their tracks and realized that THEY both forgot to help Quatre in the process.  
  
Duo then ran over to his side, "Sorry about that. We usually have flour fights once in a while."  
  
"You sure about that," giving Duo a sarcastic look on his face. "I've been here a couple of days before, and I ended up being floured in the process."  
  
Wufei then gave another serious glare at Duo, which signaled him to go back to the kitchen to clean up the cakey mess he left behind.  
  
Wufei then apologized to the best of his ability on regards of his partner/baker. "I'm totally sorry about this whole incident with this flour." He then called Duo back from the kitchen, even though he was just sent towards the kitchen a few minutes ago. "Why don't you apologize to our customer that you frequently torment so much? I'll be in the kitchen, cleaning up." With that, Wufei left the room, while Duo and Quatre stood there.  
  
Duo gave a sheepish smirk in hopes of lighting up the mood, "Sorry about that. Things can be crazy around here. By the way, I'm Duo. Duo Maxwell."  
  
"Glad to meet you. Finally I have a name to your face. Anyhow, I need a dozen éclairs, a variety of donuts and cookies again."  
  
"Don't tell me that Miss Peacecraft is having another staff party?"  
  
"She's not. She's hosting ambassadors at the embassy later on this afternoon."  
  
As Duo was collecting the goodies, Quatre managed to slip towards the corner of the bakery, in which Duo couldn't see him.  
  
Duo then looked up from his tray of éclairs and looked questioningly around the room, "Where did he go? He was just here a minute ago." Without warning, a storm of flour rained on top of him. "What the hell!!"  
  
"I finally got ya, Duo!! I guess we're even now."  
  
Duo coughed out, "I guess so. Will that be all?" At the same time, he was trying wipe the flour out of his eye.  
  
Quatre nodded a "no" in response and after the goodies were paid for, Quatre then left. As he walking back to the limo, Trowa looked up from his newspaper and knew that parts of Quatre's plan backfired.  
  
"Looks like you lost a battle with the flour."  
  
"Not really, I managed to surprise him when he was collecting the éclairs. I think this will be my last run for collecting desserts for Miss Relena."  
  
"You sure about that. I think you're getting the hang of this bakery. After all, you said that you did manage to flour the baker."  
  
"I think I won't press my luck again. I'll quit while I'm ahead. Anyhow, Relena is going to wonder where her desserts will be when the ambassadors come."  
  
After a couple of minutes of driving, Trowa eventually pulled into the back part of the embassy. Outside, Heero was on guard and as Quatre stepped out of the limo, Heero noticed that Quatre was still dusted in a layer of flour.  
  
"What are you looking at, Heero?"  
  
He then responded to Quatre in his monotone voice, "Nothing. You might want to dust yourself off. The ambassadors are here. Relena has been looking for you."  
  
"You mean they're here already. They weren't supposed to come for another hour."  
  
"You better get in there before she wonders."  
  
"All right. This is embarrassing, me having flour all over myself."  
  
After taking various shortcuts, Quatre eventually made it to the conference room and as he entered, Relena's face was in shock, but at the same time it contained a little smirk.  
  
"Gentleman here are some desserts that you are welcome to." She then motioned them to start eating, while at the same time, she struck a conversation with Quatre. "Don't tell me that the baker floured you again."  
  
"Yep he did, but this time I got the upper-hand and I managed to flour him. I think this will be my last run to this bakery. You might as well send someone else."  
  
"All right then. Thank you for all of your help." With that the saga between Quatre and the bakery ended on a happy note.  
  
****  
  
Back at the bakery, Duo went back into the kitchen. As Wufei saw the door open, he noticed that Duo was still covered in flour, and began to laugh hysterically.  
  
"Hahaha..how about that...hahaha... you finally got a taste of your own medicine."  
  
"Wufei, could you just shut up."  
  
"I can't." He continued to laugh intermediately, "It's just so funny. You and that customer."  
  
"Whatever." Duo then bowed his chin towards his chest and went on working as usual with a sense of humiliation that hung around him all throughout the afternoon.  
  
Hours passed and it was night already, customers were starting to dwindle. By 9:00, Wufei decided to call it quits. "Hey Duo, I'm leaving now. I have a date with Sally tonight. Would it be all right, if you could close for the night. I'm already late as it is."  
  
Without a response from the kitchen, Wufei decided to head out the door, without Duo's permission. Within the kitchen, Duo heard the request, but was too bummed out to reply. He was busying himself by stacking up the battered pans that he tried to throw at Wufei earlier in the day. He started to talk to himself, "Duo do this, Duo do that. I don't think Cinderella had it bad at all. Oh well, I finally got what I deserve. Flour in my face." He then mimicked in Wufei's voice on one of his commands, "Clean up those dirty pans, Duo. How many times do I have to tell you not to leave the oven unattended?".  
  
He decided to head out and grab all the bread, éclairs, donuts, and other little goodies that were still lying around on their respective shelves. After collecting each item, he placed them in the kitchen's refrigerator. As he was doing so, someone managed to sneak in, without causing the bells on the front door to jingle.  
  
As Duo was quietly humming some song that couldn't be recognized at all, he stopped dead in his tracks and noticed that Hilde was there in the bakery, just waiting for him.  
  
"Hey, stranger. Looks like you had a rough night."  
  
****  
  
How was that for chapter 3? Quatre finally got his revenge on Duo (hehehe). He might appear in future chapters again. (Who knows anything can happen!) Anyhow, the relationship between Duo and Hilde will become more apparent sometime soon (don't know when yet). Thanks for the reviews, it means a lot to me. :) Bye for now!! 


	4. Sugar Lane

Disclaimers go as usual, I don't own Gundam Wing. I also don't own the lyrics to Avril Lavigne's, "Complicated." (You'll see about this part, later on in this chapter. ^_^) Anyhow, enjoy!!  
  
****  
  
Sugar Lane  
  
Duo stood in the doorway of the kitchen looking in shock as Hilde just stood there.  
  
"What are you doing here? I was just about to finish up closing the bakery for the night."  
  
"I decided to swing by here since I thought you might still be here and I guess I was right. Where's your partner? Isn't he supposed to help you?"  
  
"He had a date tonight."  
  
"Humph. Shouldn't your partner be helping you close down for the night. I'm mean isn't this bakery also part of his because the last time I check the sign, both of your names were on it, even though one name is bigger than the other."  
  
"Yeah, I know. I know. The name thing was in part my doing. It's kind of funny on how we both started in this little town. Anyhow, I need to finish cleaning up the counters and racks. You could leave if you want because this can get a little too tedious."  
  
"I don't mind. I'm off tomorrow."  
  
"Well all right then, just give me at least twenty minutes."  
  
With that Duo was off to the races in trying to clean countless pastry racks and two long rectangular counters. While he was doing so, Hilde was timing him with her watch. "Keep it up, Duo. You're slacking a little."  
  
"Very funny. I don't see you working here." Duo then quickly dodged into the kitchen to drop off the pastry racks, and when he ran out of the kitchen, he held a rag with him and he then sprinted towards the two counters and ran back forth until they were sparkling clean.  
  
After making sure that everything was in order, Duo then headed over towards Hilde with a grin on his face. "Well, how about that. It looks like I have only thirty seconds to spare."  
  
"I guess this qualifies for a record in the bakery's history of closing down for the night category."  
  
"I guess so." Duo was still panting slightly, but all in all, the mood from the day's events began to vanish and with Hilde being there, Duo let out a sigh of relief.  
  
"So, I guess you didn't have a rough day after all."  
  
"What is that supposed to mean?"  
  
"Judging by your looks, you still have a light layer of flour all over your cooking uniform."  
  
"You mean this layer." Duo then dusted himself off.  
  
"Hey quit that! You're getting flour all over me to, you know."  
  
"I know."   
  
Duo then gently grabbed Hilde closer to him and kissed her for the first time, unexpectedly. For a minute, the couple stood in the window of the bakery kissing each other. After their small embrace, Duo left a flour smudge on Hilde's nose and she left one Duo's face as well.  
  
"I wanted to do that for a long while now. You look so wonderful tonight."  
  
"Aren't you the romantic one?"  
  
Duo was just smiling at her response. "I think we should be heading out now, how about that?"  
  
"I guess."  
  
"Just let me put my chef's hat back in the kitchen and wait for me outside."  
  
"Okay."  
  
As Hilde was leaving, Duo made a quick dash towards the kitchen and placed his chef's hat on a hook next to Wufei's hat. After making quick glances here and there throughout the bakery, Duo locked up and headed out with Hilde for the night.   
  
The two decided to head towards a café located a couple of blocks away from the bakery.  
  
"So what made you decide to go into the baking business with Wufei in the first place?"  
  
"I don't know how we paired up in the beginning. It was some random calling. That's all. You know how businesses goes, you need partners to get the project going."  
  
"Yeah, I see."  
  
"So how about you? What do you do for a living?"  
  
"I work as a secretary at a nearby office around here. For the most part, I type up letters and file folders here and there. But basically, I have mad skills in organizing. My boss is always disorganized and one of my pet peeves is when he can't find anything since the majority of the time, he messes up my system of filing important memos and all."  
  
"Secretary, huh?"  
  
"Yep. Why, what did you think my job was? A waitress."  
  
"Maybe," Duo was giving her a joking look.  
  
"Oh quit it, Duo."  
  
"I can't help myself."  
  
"It's getting late. I probably should be heading back to my apartment now, even though I'm off tomorrow."  
  
"Let me walk you back then."  
  
"You don't have to, Duo, honestly, I'll be fine. It's just two blocks away from here."  
  
"I'll feel better if I walk you home tonight. It won't be out of my way."  
  
"Honestly?"  
  
"Scout's honor."   
  
The two then walked out into the night and after walking two blocks, the two finally arrived at their destination.  
  
"Well here it is. Home sweet home."  
  
"It isn't too shabby from what I have. The place looks much nicer here."  
  
There was a brief silence between the couple for a while, as Duo stared into Hilde's eyes.  
  
Hilde then made the first move, "Good night then."  
  
"Good night, Hilde. Wait." For a second time that night, the two locked their lips together again.   
  
"I'll see ya around."  
  
While Hilde was making her way to the door, Duo was quietly watching her from sidewalk and whispered to himself, "So this is love. I can't believe I actually kissed her for a second time." He then looked towards the address number and whispered, "Maple Apartment #12 Sugar Lane."  
  
Once Hilde was inside and the lights from one of her rooms went on, Duo left and walked back to his apartment. Inside it, dirty cooking outfits were scattered throughout the area while in the kitchen, he had various cooking wear hanging on a coat rack located next to his refrigerator. Most of all, it looked like any bachelor pad with all the usual necessities such as the TV set, an unmade bed, magazines littering the floor and so forth. For the rest of the night, Duo dreamt of Hilde in his sleep, while as for the Hilde, she was dreaming of Duo.  
  
*****  
  
Morning soon came and with that Duo's alarm went off.  
  
"Huh. It's already six in the morning. I'm just going to snooze in some more." And with that, his hand fumbled with the snooze button and he fell right back to sleep. But within half an hour, the alarm went off again.   
  
Duo mumbled to himself, "Can't a guy get any sleep around here. I give up!"  
  
Within two minutes, he was up just wearing only his boxer shorts and after taking a quick shower, finding a clean working outfit, and rebraiding his hair, he staggered to his kitchen and made a fresh pot of coffee.   
  
"Another day at the Shinigami's and Chang's bakery." With that Duo slumped his head towards his chest and talking sarcastically, "I have another day to work with Wufei. Well lucky me." Right then, the coffee was ready and after drinking two straight cups of black coffee, Duo was out the door.  
  
After walking through four different traffic intersections and dodging various pedestrians, he finally arrived at the bakery. He could already see Wufei working hard in reshelving the counters with their baked goods.  
  
"Where have you been, Maxwell? Weren't you supposed to be here by 7:00 sharp?"  
  
"I'm glad to see you to, Woofi." Wufei then gave a stare towards Duo. "Aren't you glad that the bakery didn't burn down, since I had to close last night."  
  
"Whatever. Just go to the stockroom and refill the containers of flour, sugar, and cocoa. The last cake filling I did used most of the cocoa from the previous container."  
  
"Whatever you say." Duo went back to the kitchen and grabbed his chef's hat. It was still dusty from the previous flour fight with Quatre. "So how was your date with Sally?"  
  
"None of your business."  
  
"I see someone is touchy with the subject."  
  
"Speak for yourself. I see that you went out on a date with that customer of ours. The girl with the cornflower eyes."  
  
"How did you know?"  
  
"Sally and I were eating a local restaurant and that's all. We saw you two walking towards the café."  
  
"For your information, we just went out for coffee and that was all."  
  
"You sure about that. You have love written all over yourself."  
  
"What can I say, if you excuse me now. I have a job to do."  
  
With that, Wufei and Duo ended their conversation and went on their business as usual. For the rest of the day, Wufei was busy handling customers and baking French rolls, raisin bread, and various doughnuts. As for Duo, he was having fun in creating the different frostings for Wufei's doughnuts, while at the same time; he was monitoring the éclairs he was making for Hilde. "She's gonna love these."  
  
"What are you muttering to yourself about now?"  
  
"Oh, nothing." Duo then gave him a wink in hopes of getting Wufei off his back.  
  
He then turned on his workstation radio, which then began to play Avril Lavigne's, "Complicated." Right then, Duo couldn't resist from singing along, even though he sounded horrible when he started to screech the chorus.  
  
"Why'd you have to go and make things so   
complicated see the way you're acting   
like you're somebody else gets me frustrated  
Life's like this you fall and you crawl and  
you break and you take what you get and  
you turn it into honesty promise me I'm never  
gonna find ya fake it  
No no no..."  
  
By that time, Wufei heard Duo's terrible rendition of "Complicated" and yelled on top of his lungs to vent out his agitation, "Why do you have to make my life so COMPLICATED?"  
  
Duo then heard Wufei's booming voice and immediately stopped, even though "Complicated" was still being played on his radio. "Sorry about that. I just got a little carried away."  
  
"A little? Customers could hear you outside as they were waiting for their orders to be taken."  
  
"Oops."  
  
"Thank god you stopped. You're going to drive this bakery into bankruptcy if we aren't too careful. I don't want customers to be scared away by a crazy baker."  
  
"All right, I get your point."  
  
"Good." Wufei then left the kitchen and headed outside to greet the customers that were slowly trickling in for the afternoon.  
  
Right then, the oven's alarm rang off and Duo's éclairs were done.  
  
"How about that? They're finally finished. I still have time to go over to her apartment."  
  
After letting the éclairs cool for a few minutes and placing the chocolate frosting on them, Duo gently placed each one a medium sized pink box. He then told Wufei that he was leaving since his shift was over and that he was heading out.  
  
"But wait, Duo!! You still have to close today, remember?"  
  
"My shift is over and by the way, I closed last night. So, I guess it's your turn for today. Bye!! GTGN!!"  
  
After walking for ten minutes, Duo finally made it to Hilde's apartment complex. It was already evening and the sun already had set, even though the sky was a navy blue. He then paced his breathing and scaled the steps that lead to Hilde's front door and this time he was nervous as ever. "Calm your nerves, Duo. Just calm yourself down." After a minute of talking to himself, he finally mustered up his courage to ring the bell...  
  
****  
  
Will Duo see Hilde or will fate intervene? I guess we'll have to wait for chapter 5. ^_^ 


	5. Chocolate Kisses

Hi everyone! (Sorry about chapter 4's formatting, I just changed the format to accommodate "Complicated." I didn't notice the problem until my sister pointed that out to me. Thanks sis! Again, I'm truly sorry about that.) Anyhow, you know the routine about the disclaimers. So here's chapter 5 and ENJOY!  
  
*****  
  
Chocolate Kisses  
  
Right then the door opened, but Duo didn't recognize the person at all. A tall lanky girl in her teens answered the door. Her eyes were similar to Hilde's but her hair was about shoulder length and she asked, "Can I help you?"  
  
"Hi, is Hilde here?" While in his mind, Duo was contemplating, "She didn't mention that she had any siblings." He then gave a fake smile to the girl at the door.  
  
The girl looked questioningly at the guy with a long braid, who was also holding a pink colored box, "I think you got the wrong apartment, mister." She then shut the door in his face.  
  
"But wait!" He then rang the doorbell again.  
  
"What do you want now?"  
  
"You sure a girl named Hilde does not live here, in this very apartment?"  
  
"What does she look like?"  
  
"Well, she has beautiful blue cornflower eyes and short hair. She's a little taller than you."  
  
"The last time I checked in this room, no one fits your description of your mystery girl."  
  
"You sure about that?"  
  
"I'm very sure. Now if you please excuse me, I need to go back babysitting my brothers and sisters." The girl then slammed the door in his face again, before Duo had any chance of asking more questions.  
  
He then waited a couple of minutes outside, just analyzing to what had just occurred. "How could I be at the wrong apartment?" He then rang the doorbell for the third time and again, the girl answered.  
  
"What do you want again? I'm warning you, if you're trying to harass me, I'm calling the cops in the matter of thirty seconds, if you don't get off my front door step. One, two, three, four, five." She even began to tap her foot to let Duo get the point of her impatience.  
  
"All right, I get the point, but you sure that a girl named Hilde does not live here?"  
  
"For the LAST TIME, I'm sure. You now have ten seconds left." The girl then called to one of her younger siblings to get the phone and in the matter of few minutes, the girl had a black cordless phone in her hand. With that sign, Duo immediately ran down the steps and into the darkness.  
  
"What?!? I could have sworn that Hilde lived here." He then looked towards the apartment number, it read #10. "How could that have happen? Duo calm yourself down, you're going to make a complete fool about yourself." He then hurriedly ran down the steps and headed straight towards apartment #12. After straightening himself out and calming his pulse down, he made sure to check the apartment number to see that it was Hilde's apartment. The brass numbers clearly read #12. "All right, here it goes." His right hand slowly pushed the yellow- lighted button on the front door and he then waited in the long silence.  
  
Two minutes later, a light in the living room went on and Hilde appeared at the front door. "Hey Duo. What brings you here this evening? Shouldn't you be working at the bakery still?"  
  
"Who me?"  
  
Hilde gave Duo a teasing smile.  
  
"Today I only work 'til 4:30. I brought you these, I even made them myself." He then handed her the pink colored box.  
  
She gingerly peaked inside and to her amazement; there were six chocolate éclairs all of them were shaped as hearts. "Duo you shouldn't have. They're so cute. You want to come in. I was just making a fresh pot of hot coffee." With an offer like that, Duo couldn't refuse.  
  
Once inside her apartment, Duo was curiously looking around, fumbling with pictures that Hilde took on her past vacations to the Hawaiian Islands and to the Caribbean. Most of the pictures consisted of sunsets and beaches, since she was an avid photographer.  
  
"Wow, I didn't know you like photography that much, Hilde. These pictures are great. Where did you take this one?" He was holding a photograph that showed the beauty of Hawaiian Islands that were enclosed in a deep orange sunset. Within the picture, shadows were forming behind palm trees and the ocean reflected the rosy sky.  
  
"That one was taken in Honolulu. I was in the capital for a few days and I couldn't resist myself from taking that one. The sky was so perfect that day." She then walked over to him and gave him his cup of hot java. "So have you done any traveling before?"  
  
"Nope, not really. I would just take a couple of weeks off and travel around the states such as New York, California, and Florida. It's one of those places every year."  
  
"That sounds like fun for awhile. You get to meet new people at least."  
  
"Yeah, that's a good point. But, going to a place that you've been before for the hundredth time can sometimes get a little boring."  
  
The two continued to chat throughout the night over a cup of coffee. It was their second date.  
  
"I guess I better get going now. I have a hard day's work coming up. You know how Wufei is."  
  
"All right then. I'll see ya at the bakery."  
  
"I guess this is good night then." Hilde then stepped towards him and kissed him. The two stood there kissing each other for ten minutes with Duo caressing Hilde's back.  
  
"I better get going now. I'll see you some time soon." With that Hilde walked Duo over to her front door and they kissed for the umpteenth time. Duo walked out into the chilly night air, and he began to fumble with something in his pocket as he was walking down a street. "Ooops. I took her coffee mug. How did I ever do that in the first place? I better get this back to her."  
  
Meanwhile back at Hilde's apartment, she was cleaning up her kitchen. "I'm missing something, but what could it be?" Right then her doorbell rang off, "I wonder who could that be in the middle of the night?" She then walked over there and looked through the security window and noticed that Duo was standing out there.  
  
"What on earth are you back here for?"  
  
Duo then sheepishly gave her the coffee mug, "I thought you might be wondering that you're missing a coffee mug. That's all."  
  
"So that's what I forgot. I knew I was missing something, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Thanks for bringing it back. You didn't have to come all the way back here, just to drop this mug off."  
  
"I know, but I was on 71st street and I noticed that I had something heavy in my pocket. I must have placed it in my pocket or something of the sort."  
  
"Thanks anyway for bringing it back to me. You want to come in again. It's late and all. Probably by the time you get back to your place, it will be about twelve in the morning. Why don't you stay here for the night? I can make a makeshift bed on the couch for you."  
  
"I don't want to trouble you just for one night."  
  
"It's all right. Honestly."  
  
"All right then." Duo then stepped into her apartment for the second time during that night.  
  
Hilde then went to her linen closet and pulled out a spare pillow and blanket.  
  
"So what time do you have to be at the bakery tomorrow?"  
  
"Seven."  
  
As she was conversing with Duo, Hilde kept going back and forth between the couch and the linen closet to see if the blanket was long enough for the couch.  
  
"Why seven?"  
  
"You know how Wufei is. Punctuality is the key here."  
  
"Right."  
  
"I think this should do. You don't have to trouble yourself than you already have to."  
  
"You sure. Okay then, the bathroom is just down this hall and my room is just right around the corner. I'll leave you some spare towels just in case you need them and here's some old t-shirts and pants that used to belong to my boyfriend. I think these should fit you. Good night then."  
  
"Good night, Hilde."  
  
He decided to head for the shower, while Hilde was in her room. It was about eleven at night and it would soon be midnight. As he walking to the bathroom, he could hear Hilde's radio on. "I guess she's a night owl too," and right then, "Complicated" was playing again for the second time that day.  
  
Within the shower, Duo was trying to croon "Complicated," while he was doing that, Hilde overheard him from her room, "What is he trying to do? Does he know that he's so terrible? But on the other hand, he's so cute. What is a girl supposed to do?" She sighed to herself and looked at her alarm clock; its red digits were showing 11:30. "I might as well have a midnight snack before I go to sleep since I have nothing to do tomorrow."  
  
She decided to head towards her kitchen and she noticed that Duo was still in the bathroom. She quietly sneaked towards the kitchen and grabbed some chocolate chip cookies from one of her cabinets. As she was doing so, Duo ventured out of the bathroom once he was finished with his shower and he walked into the darken hallway. He noticed that Hilde's door leading to her room was closed, "I guess she fell asleep already. Oh well." He then decided to head back towards the couch.  
  
Meanwhile back in the kitchen, Hilde was making her way back to her room when she heard soft footsteps coming down her hallway. She looked over towards the couch where Duo was staying and noticed that it was empty. "He must be still in the bathroom." With that said, she glanced towards the bathroom and noticed that the door was closed and the lights were still on in there. "Great, if there's an intruder in my apartment and the only source of my protection is still in the bathroom. Well, it looks like I have to deal with this situation myself." She decided to head back towards the kitchen and grab the closet object within her reach, which was a broom. Once she had the broom in her hand, she stealthily waited around the corner and she braced herself.  
  
The creaky footsteps came closer to her and with that she whacked the intruder across the back. The intruder went down onto the floor and after regaining his surroundings; he started to get up again. Not realizing who it was, Hilde decided to strike at the person again, but this time her broom was caught in midair, which made her lose her stance and she fell to the floor.  
  
"What the.?" Once Duo realized that it was Hilde, he changed his tone, "Hey, there you are. I thought you were already sleeping. Why did you whack me with that broom of yours." He then rubbed his back and his head.  
  
"I thought you were an intruder because I thought you were still in the bathroom."  
  
Duo then looked towards the bathroom, "Oops. I forgot to turn off the light. Sorry about that." Duo then helped Hilde off from her floor.  
  
"You scared me to death, Duo." She was straightening her blue silky nightgown. "What were you doing sneaking around in the hall?"  
  
"Just trying to make it back to the couch, that's all."  
  
"And what were you doing in the middle of the night?"  
  
"I was just in the kitchen getting a little midnight snack."  
  
Duo noticed that a smudge of chocolate was still around her lips. "Um.You still have chocolate around your lips."  
  
"Where? This is embarrassing."  
  
"Let me get that for you." Right then, Duo held out his right index finger and wiped the smudge of chocolate. "There."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"You know for a girl like you, you know how to whack someone."  
  
Hilde laughed at his remark and blushed slightly. "Sorry about that. Did I hit you too hard?"  
  
"No, I'm fine."  
  
The two stood in the dark hallway for a while even though some light was seeping through a window nearby. And with that, the two started to kiss and things led to one and another. They both walked over to her room and with that, he then lifted her to her bed. In a matter of moments, they were kissing again and in matter of moments, Duo took his shirt off and tossed it to the floor. The two continued to kiss, while Duo was gently caressing Hilde as he was also taking her nightgown off.  
  
In between their kisses, Hilde whispered, "So much for the makeshift bed in the living room."  
  
"Yeah, I know. You know what?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Ever since I first meet you at the bakery, I just felt something in me change."  
  
"I know what you mean. I had the same feeling, that's why I kept coming back to the bakery.to see you, even though I was buying doughnuts for my co- workers. All my co-workers thought I was crazy falling in love with a baker, but they're all wrong."  
  
*****  
  
The dawn soon came and the two were still cuddled right next to each other. Duo was the first one to awake, but he didn't want to disturb Hilde since she was just lying next to him. He noticed that she had a beautiful smile upon her face and he then placed his hand through her short hair. With that, Hilde then awoke and he whispered, "Morning, sleepy head."  
  
"Good morning. What time is it?"  
  
"It's about five."  
  
The two then looked out towards the window and saw their first sunrise together.  
  
"Wouldn't that be neat, if we could go on vacation together and look at sunrises and sunsets?"  
  
Duo whispered, "I bet it would. Where did you think we should go to?"  
  
Hilde then pondered that question for a couple of seconds, "How about Scotland or New Zealand? I've always dreamt of going there someday soon."  
  
"That would be nice."  
  
"We might as well, get a move on it. You have work in a matter of less than two hours from now."  
  
"You're right."  
  
The two then got out of bed and found their respective clothing on the floor and scurried about the room. Duo collected his things and headed straight towards the living room and picked up his other clothes, while Hilde headed straight towards her kitchen to make a quick breakfast of pancakes and coffee. After everything was set, the two had breakfast together and Duo headed back towards his own apartment.  
  
"I'll see ya some time soon. I promise you."  
  
"Have fun at work and don't let Wufei over work you now. If he does, I'll come there in person and scold him myself," she said sarcastically.  
  
The two then kissed and went about on their routines for the day.  
  
*****  
  
After walking through endless obstacles of intersections, Duo looked at his watch with panicked eyes, "All right, I have five minutes to get there. Wufei will have a fit if I'm late again." He started to turn around the corner, where the bakery was. Right then, he collided straight into Wufei, himself, who was carrying groceries.  
  
An outraged Wufei then announced, "What the hell? What are you trying to do, Duo? Are you trying to kill me so you can collect the insurance money from the bakery?"  
  
Duo then responded nonchalantly, "Hey, Wufei, I'm glad to see you too. I was just heading towards the bakery. I thought you'd be there by now, since you're always Mr. Punctual. Here let me help you with those bags of groceries."  
  
Wufei then responded in a harsh tone, "I can manage, thank you." He immediately grabbed the bags of flour that tumbled out of the brown paper bag, and made sure no one was seeing him.  
  
"I'm still on time, right?"  
  
"Whatever."  
  
The two entered in their bakery and began another saga in their baking business.  
  
*****  
  
How was that for chapter 5? I think it's about time that Heero makes his appearance in this bakery saga. (hehehe) ^-^ 


	6. Introducing a New Setting

Hi everyone. All right here it is, chapter 6 with Heero getting involved. This is just the beginning. (Trust me!) Disclaimers go as usual.  
  
*****  
  
Introducing a New Setting...  
  
It was an ordinary day as usual at the embassy with Relena working at her desk typing in lengthy reports on her computer. Quatre was somewhere off running around chasing staff members trying to collect various reports and documents for their database. On the other hand, Heero was doing his usual job, in which it was to watch over Relena. Most of the day, the monotone security guard would just watch her from his post by the doors, which lead into her room. The sound of keys being punched in on her computer was evident, but he didn't mind. He would just stand there endlessly watching her like a hawk and if anyone that wasn't clearly identified with some type of badge, he would begin to interrogate the person in question.  
  
Relena then looked up from her pile of work and caught Heero off his guard, "What are you looking at Heero?"  
  
He replied in his usual monotone voice, "Nothing. I was just monitoring the hallway." He wasn't truly looking at the hallway, but at Relena, herself.  
  
"You sure about that. It doesn't seem like that?"  
  
"Never mind."  
  
"Anyhow. Remember at my staff party that was held a couple of days ago, in which I told you about Quatre's little flour war with a local baker around here."  
  
"Yeah. What about it?"  
  
"Quatre told me that he doesn't want to go be the one who picks up the bakery goods anymore and I need a new person."  
  
"Are you suggesting that I be the one?"  
  
She then gave him a guilty look, "Um...yes. I don't know who else would do the job for me?" She was fidgeting with a pen in her hand in hopes of passing the time when Heero was trying to make his decision. "If you can't, I'll understand."  
  
Heero pondered the question in silence for about a minute before he gave his final answer. Thoughts of him getting floured in the process were running through his mind, and if anyone saw the Perfect Soldier getting floured, the snickering and the remarks from his colleagues would never fade away. One such comment came through his mind, "Hey look, there's the Perfect Soldier. I heard that he was floured in the process of picking up bakery goods for Ms. Peacecraft and when he came back, he was covered in white from head to toe. I thought that in military school, they teach you how to dodge objects such as bullets, but I guess not flour."  
  
While Heero was busy with that thought, Relena walked over to him and gently placed her hand in his. "Heero, are you all right?"  
  
With that said, he immediately snapped out from his trance and resumed his monotone speech, "I'm fine." He then straightened himself out. "I'll do the job for you."  
  
She then fired another question at him, "Could you purchase a variety of doughnuts for the staff tomorrow as a breakfast meal, I think they would enjoy a change in the food around here since all the time, we seem to eat bagels and cream cheese. I'm mean not to say that bagels and cream cheese are bad. It's just getting a little to redundant."   
  
"I'll do it."  
  
"Thanks Heero, I knew I could count on you." She then smiled at him, which made his heart skip a beat, but he couldn't figure out why he was feeling this way at all.  
  
*****  
  
Back at the bakery, business was pretty much as usual with a trickle of customers here and there. At least, there wasn't any flour wars going between the two head bakers there, even though Duo was crossing a very thin line of patience from Wufei.  
  
"Duo, how many times do I have to tell you that you have to grease the cookie sheets before you place the cookie dough on them. Otherwise, you're going to have a dozen cookies stuck to the cookie sheet." Right then Wufei was trying his luck in removing the twelve burnt cookies that Duo had already baked, but during the baking process some customer distracted Duo, and inadvertently he left them in a little too long in the oven.  
"I give up with this cookie rack." A hint of fire in his eyes, he then grabbed a spatula nearby him and began a mad rush at Duo.  
  
"Easy there, Wufei. You don't want to spoil any of your cake frostings with me in them."  
  
"Why you?"   
  
Duo tried to shield himself behind a chair as Wufei came closer to him. He then spoke behind the chair, "You don't want to start another flour war with me. Look what happened last time, we both ended up getting floured by Quatre. Remember? And besides you told me that we need to get our act together in order for this bakery to survive. Right?"   
  
Wufei then calmed his nerves down a little and dropped the spatula on his workstation table. "You might have won the battle here, but you didn't win the war yet?" Afterwards, Wufei left their kitchen and headed towards the front of their bakery to attend some customers that had entered into the room during their small conflict.  
  
Duo then mumbled to himself, "Phew that was close. I better back my bags and leave, before he really kills me or does something insane. I think he wants the insurance money for himself, the more I think about it now." He then lifted the cookie sheet that Wufei had dumped into the sink just a while ago and twirled it in the air like he was one of those pizza makers tossing the pizza dough into the air. After twirling the rack a couple of times, he somehow manage to have it stick to the ceiling without him noticing at first. "Where's the cookie sheet? I just had it in my hands just a minute ago." He scratched his head and pondered about the missing rack.  
  
"And what are you doing, Maxwell?"   
  
"What? You mean me?" pointing to himself.  
  
"Of course I mean you, who else would I be talking to in this very kitchen."  
  
"Nothing. I was just cleaning up the mess I made." With that, Duo forgot about the cookie rack that was still clinging to the ceiling, even though Wufei was standing underneath it throughout their entire conversation.  
  
"I see that you've made a change in your habit at least and maybe for the better." He gave a questioningly look towards Duo and then left the kitchen again.  
  
While outside in the main area of the bakery, Wufei was attending to customers again and he noticed one of them that Duo was familiar with, the girl with the blue cornflower eyes had showed up again for the second time this week.  
  
"What do you want now?"  
  
"Hi Wufei. Is Duo around? I hope you're not giving him a hard time unless you want to deal with one angry lady that standing right in front of you."  
  
"He's in the kitchen. Just wait here and I'll get him for you."   
  
"Thank you."  
  
He immediately left and within a matter of moments, Duo popped out of the kitchen filled with smiles and perkiness, while as for Wufei he did another expression of 'Here we go again' scenarios. He then went to the far corner of the bakery and overheard their conversation, while he was pretending to wipe the counters with a rag in his hands. But actually to the customers, he looked like he was wringing the rag as if he was ready to choke someone.  
  
"Hey there, babe. How's your day been?"  
  
"I've had better. Today the office was filled with papers and deadlines of completing various forms and so forth. My boss accidentally forgot to send a memo to each of the workers about this merger we've been dealing with."  
  
"That sounds like fun." Duo was giving her a sarcastic grin.  
  
"So how's your day been?"  
  
"Pretty much the same routine over and over again, even though we make new pastries practically everyday. Wufei over there has been hounding me." He then sneaked a little bag of flour in her hands during their conversation and winked at her.  
  
"He has?"  
  
"Yep. Pretty much, nagging me." He then let out a sigh.  
  
"Well if that's the case, I'll show him a piece of my mind." Hilde then walked over to where Wufei was standing, "I've heard that you've been hounding, my Duo for these past couple of days."  
  
Wufei then responded dryly, "So what?"  
  
"So what? Is that all you can say to me, since I'm his girlfriend."  
  
"I don't need to get involved in these little conversations. If you would kindly excuse me right now, I need to get back to my customers that are waiting for their orders to be taken."  
  
"Before I let you go, this is what happens when you mess with my man." Right then a shower of flour rained on Wufei.  
  
"What the ...?" realizing that some customers brought their children along, he decided to control his language. Wufei then coughed up flour from his surprised ambushed. He wondered to himself, "Of all the people, the one person that I wouldn't suspect, Hilde. Duo this means pay back time." He then looked over his shoulder to see where Hilde ran off to and noticed that Duo was snickering from his small victory. In a matter of minutes, he yelled on the top of his lungs and pointed his finger towards Duo, "Mark my words, Maxwell, you haven't won the war yet!" As he said that, customers were looking in shock and some even had their jaws drop and they immediately cleared away from one angry baker.  
  
A boy who was about five tugged at his mother's coat and whispered, "Why is that man so angry? He's all white and covered with something." He looked curiously at Wufei, in which Wufei gave back a distorted grin at him. He then screamed on top of his lungs, "AAAHHH! MOMMY," and hid behind his mother.  
  
"I think he's having a little temper tantrum, dear. Just stay away from him until he comes back to his senses." The child listened to his mother and clearly stayed away from Wufei while his mother was purchasing a foot long French bread roll and some glazed doughnuts. During the transaction, he kept his eye out for the renegade couple. He also noticed that the child was alarmed at his sight and he even offered the kid a cookie popsicle that had chocolate chips scattered throughout the cookie and with an ice cream stick holding it upright. With him holding the cookie popsicle in his right hand, the kid immediately hid behind his mother again, afraid that Wufei might do something scary. "Sorry about that, he's usually not that scared around people. Here honey, the baker is offering you something. Go ahead, don't be scared." She kindly ushered him to the counter, where Wufei was leaning over. The kid meekly took the treat from him and started to eat it. Within a few minutes, the kid was smiling again and thanked Wufei.  
  
After everything had settled down again, most of the customers got their orders taken and immediately left. Once the room had emptied, Wufei headed straight towards the kitchen where Duo and Hilde were hiding supposedly. "Okay, I know you two are in here somewhere." In the background, there were sounds of laughter going on within the darken kitchen. He then began to open various closets that he thought could fit the two of them and when he was doing so, Duo and Hilde began to switch places around the kitchen to aggravate Wufei even more.  
  
"You sure he won't mind, Duo." whispered Hilde. "I think he's going to erupt any second once he finds us."  
  
"Don't worry, we always do something crazy in this bakery for some odd reason."  
  
"Whatever you say."  
  
"All right. I KNOW that the two of you are here somewhere." Right then he heard, one of the closet doors closed behind and he decided to pretend to slip out of the kitchen by opening and shutting the kitchen door abruptly. With that Duo decided to head out to check to see if everything was clear, but right then all hell broke lose within the kitchen. Wufei yanked Duo out of the closet and started to do their usual scenario of throwing pots and pans, while Hilde was emerging from her secret hiding place.  
  
"QUIT IT YOU, TWO. You're making a mess of the kitchen. Don't the two of you ever stop acting like little children? I mean I've been here before and I haven't really seen any flour fights."   
  
"Stay out of this WOMAN!" Wufei glared at her with an angry look.  
  
"WHAT did you say to my girlfriend?" He then jumped at Wufei with a series of pastry bags filled with chocolate frosting.  
  
Hilde stood off to the corner and looked onto the scene, "I knew I shouldn't have left the office so early today." Right then sugar crystals came at her and she immediately dodged them. "I guess it's time to play hide and seek."  
  
The two continued to duke it out before they realized that they were acting kind of foolish, but to get their last laugh, the two aimed each other with their little ammunition of flour. At that point, Hilde knew to duck for cover because the flour battle was going to get a little messy. By the time the two fighting bakers came to a truce, the whole kitchen was engulfed in flour. While at the same time, Wufei was covered in chocolate frosting and flour that clung to him like glue. As for Duo, he managed to duck from Wufei's blitzkrieg of flour, but had strawberry filling all over his apron from a pan thrown by Wufei earlier in the fight. But this time, the two finally agreed that they were equals in this bakery battle for now.  
  
Hilde emerged from her hiding spot, which was underneath the table, even though flour dusted her slightly on her back and shoulders, "I'm glad you two finally came to your senses about this whole issue."   
  
"Sorry about that honey. We usually don't get out of hand like this. Oh well, it was fun. Well, look at the time, it's time to close down for the day."   
  
With that the trio cleaned the bakery up until it sparkled. Duo then lead Hilde out the door and said, "I'll see you later, Wufei."  
  
"Whatever." He was left to mop the floor. By the end, the bucket of water had turn into some form of paste. He then lifted the mop from the thick pale paste, "Violà this is what I get."  
  
"That's interesting," replied a woman standing in the doorway of the kitchen with a bag of supplies.  
  
"Hey, you. I wouldn't want you to fall right now with those supplies in your hands right now."  
  
"Now, now, Wufei I can manage." After she placed the various bags of groceries on the table, she asked him, "Where you going off to right now?"  
  
"I was thinking of heading home for the night."  
  
"Oh come on Wufei don't be such party pooper. The night is still young."  
  
"All right then and what do you suggest?"   
  
*****  
  
Back at the embassy, everyone had already closed up their offices for the night, but one room was still lighted. In there, Relena was making final adjustments to her file cabinet, while Heero was waiting outside to escort her back home. "You know, Heero you don't have to constantly watch me from that hallway because I know you're still there. I don't need the extra security even though I run this embassy."  
  
"Whatever, I'm just doing my job."  
  
Relena then popped out of the room, "I really appreciate that, but you don't have to follow me everywhere." She then went back in to close down her computer and lock the file cabinets. After making sure that everything was in order, she locked her room and as she was heading out through another set of doors, she bumped into Heero in a darken hallway. "Sorry about that. I didn't see you. You seem to always pop out of nowhere." He then placed his fingers on her lips to silence her, but she didn't mind.  
  
The two stood there as if time just stood still for them. Each with their eyes gazed at one another. He wanted her, but he could never tell her the absolute truth. He eventually broke the silence, "C'mmon a car is waiting for you outside by the back gates." He then led her towards the back part of the embassy and right there, Trowa was waiting outside the car, while already in it, Quatre was waiting for them. "Okay, Trowa everything is secured." And with that, Trowa acknowledged and began the drive.  
  
Inside the car, everyone was quiet for a while until Quatre spoke up, "So Heero, I heard that you are going to be the new 'runner' to pick up the bakery goods at Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery. Congratulations."  
  
Heero just sat there quietly and stared ahead at the long dark road leading up to Relena's residence.  
  
"Do you need any pointers?"  
  
"I can manage the situation myself."  
  
Sensing the tension in the car, Quatre managed to shift the subject, "All right, on to the next topic and lets see," right then Quatre pulled out his palm pilot and noticed that Relena's birthday was coming up, even though practically everyone in the car new about it. "So do you have any plans for your birthday, yet?" directing his question towards Relena.  
  
Relena was somewhat paying attention to Quatre, even though she looked like she was deprived of sleep for the past ten hours and the incident with Heero was on her mind, "Not really. I just plan to have a normal day just like any day."  
  
"You sure about that? I can ask the staff to host a party in your honor."  
  
"I really don't want to trouble the staff with minor issues, honestly, Quatre. Thanks for the offer." Right then the black car pulled into the front of Relena's home and with that, Heero escorted her out and walked with her up to the front of her steps. "Thank you, Heero and good night."  
  
He nodded in response and watched her enter into her house and after waiting for a couple of minutes to see if the scene was clear, he left and headed back towards the car, where the other two were waiting. Once Heero was back in the car, Trowa decided to drive Quatre back and on their way there, the two in the back seat had another conversation.  
  
"Heero, I think we should have some type of surprise party for Relena. I mean after all, she's been in a pretty tough spot lately with securing peace agreements and forming relationships with various nations, she needs a break."  
  
"Get to the point Quatre."  
  
"All right, I'll be brief. I think you should go to the bakery and purchase a cake for her upcoming birthday. I think it would be a fantastic surprise for her."  
  
Heero acknowledged his secret mission, which was coined, OPERATION SURPRISE. By that time, the car finally pulled up at Quatre's townhouse and with that, Trowa drove Heero home for the night. During the night, Heero pondered on the design of Relena's birthday cake even though he didn't know if he should have flowers decorating the surface of the cake or should he have sprinkles on it. All these thoughts surged throughout his mind as he tossed and turned in his bed. He began to mutter to himself, "How would I know on what designs I should plan on this cake?" And with that, he fell asleep for just a couple of hours. But with the light of the early dawn shining through his apartment window, he had to make his mind up and with that he did.  
  
Within a matter of hours, Heero was up and running about, tossing his green tank top to the floor, while his shorts still remained and putting on a decent white shirt and neatly pressed pants on him. He already called Trowa to provide the transportation to the bakery and with that his fate was sealed. After waiting for about five minutes in the early morning, Trowa finally pulled up in the front lobby of his apartment complex.  
  
"Good Morning. I see that your ready to battle with the two bakers, I assume."  
  
"Just drive, Trowa. I don't need to delay any further." With that, Trowa began a slow drive towards the bakery and after turning onto several different streets and passing though endless rows of empty shops that were waiting to open for the day, the two finally pulled into the parking lot that held the bakery. "Here we are, Heero. Do you want me to come in with you, just in case anything goes wrong?"  
  
"Just wait for me in this parking spot."   
  
Trowa nodded in acknowledgement and with that, Heero closed the car door. As Heero was about to enter the bakery, Trowa murmured, "Another one bites the dust." He then saw Heero enter the bakery and dialed on his cell phone, "He's in all right. So who wants to make a bet?" ...  
  
*****  
  
Well, how was that for chapter 6? I hope you paid attention to one certain detail in this chapter that will come into play later on. I'll update soon, so stay tuned! ^_^ 


	7. Strawberry Jam

Hi everyone, here's the second installment on Heero's saga with the bakery. (hehehe) Disclaimers go as usual, but there are two new OC that are mine. Anyhow, hope you all like this. ^-^  
  
*****  
  
Strawberry Jam  
  
On the other end of the conversation, Quatre had gathered a group of staff members around a telephone in his office. "All right quiet everybody, who wants to place a bet that Heero will survive from his bakery ordeal without getting floured or smeared with some pastry filling? Anybody?" The room became silent as everyone pondered on what Heero's probability of not getting hit with anything.   
  
Right then, Trowa's voice was booming from the speaker mode on the phone, "Quatre, put me down for $75 against Heero."  
  
"Are you out of your mind? You should know that Heero won't be floured."  
  
"I'm not trusting you even though it took you on your third try to the bakery just to get your sweet revenge. I'm going against Heero and that's that."  
  
"All righty then, $75 against Heero from Trowa. Since he's betting, I'll wager $75 for Heero. Does anyone else want to bet?"  
  
A staff member from Relena's office answered first, "I'll make a bet for five dollars."  
  
"Oh, come on Riley. Don't be such a wimp. You should raise your stakes higher because chances are he won't get hit with anything in the process." replied another staff member, who was straightening out his tie and making sure that his short brown hair was presentable.  
  
The chestnut haired girl then adjusted her rimless glasses and raised her stakes higher to fifty dollars, "I hope your right about this, Aidan. Because if you're not, I'm going straight to Ms. Peacecraft myself and ask her to fire you, personally." She then glared at him and headed straight out the door to the adjoining room, where she was organizing folders for the next staff meeting.  
  
"I think she likes me." The others within the room looked on with disbelief. "I see that no one has any faith in me. Hey Quatre, put me down $100, just to show Riley."   
  
"Does anyone else want to place a bet that Heero will come out all right?" Quatre was looking around the room and with that a few more hands popped out from the crowd.  
  
One boy about the age fifteen wagered ten dollars for Heero, while another older staff member placed a wager of seventy-five dollars. But from what it was worth, Quatre calculated the total amount of money that was raised, "All right the grand total of this bet comes out to...drum roll please..." Someone in the crowd banged on their yellow legal notepad with a pen, "Comes out to be $350 exactly. Does anyone else want to bet?"  
  
Once that was said, Relena suddenly walked into the room and was unaware of this wagering activity. "And what do you think you all are doing right now?" She had her arms crossed around her chest and gave Quatre an agitated face.   
  
Quatre's face became white with sweat beads dotting on his forehead. "Nothing really, I mean honestly." He was still holding the phone in his hands with Trowa on the other end.  
  
"Quatre, I know your up to something because I can always tell when you're lying."  
  
"All right, all right. I'm guilty as charged, but we're currently holding a wager on Heero's first day at the bakery." Relena suddenly became interested in this wager after all. "So far, we've raised $350 in Heero's favor, while there's $75 against him."  
  
"So where is this money going to once Heero is back from his bakery run?"  
  
Quatre made a qulping sound to clear his voice and began to fidget with his tie, "Well, we aren't sure yet. Maybe to our rainy day fund." Right then all eyes turned to Quatre with angry looks in them, "But then again, maybe not."  
  
Relena proposed her own solution, "How about this Quatre, if Heero returns safe and sound everyone gets their money back. On the other hand, I'm willing to wager something in this game. I'm going against everyone else that has played so far." The room went quiet again for the second time, even the phone line went silent.  
  
"You're joking. Aren't you?"  
  
"No I'm not, I'll wager $200 to say that Heero will get some type of bakery ingredient on him." With that, all faces dropped their jaws down in shock of a gambling Relena.   
  
"You sure about that? I'm mean you don't have to play in this game."  
  
"I'm sure Quatre and besides a girl needs a little fun once in a while." She then smiled at him.  
  
Trowa was still on the phone and his question sounded through from the speaker, "Ms. Peacecraft are you sure about that?"  
  
Recognizing the voice, "For the last time, I'm sure, Trowa, and so you're the mastermind behind all of this madness."  
  
Trowa's rebuttal, "I'm hanging this phone up now." A phone tone was heard on the speaker.  
  
Aidan then spoke up even though he was afraid that his superior would fire him on the spot, "So what happens if you win this entire bet?"  
  
"I'll devise something for this mutiny. You can count on that." She looked at Aidan's face especially since she knew how he hated making endless copies of reports for her. "I'll even make sure that you'll suffer the worst, Aidan." A chill ran up his spine, which signaled him to start work again, before she yelled at him.   
  
"The odds are 10:2, with Relena and Trowa being only the opposition. I guess the odds are in favor for Heero to survive from his bakery run." boasted Quatre.  
  
"Quatre, I have another question for you."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Does this bet apply for this whole entire day?"  
  
"I guess so." The others in the room heard it, so Relena knew that she had witnesses to back her up in this bet.  
  
"Very well then, everyone back to work now. We have an embassy to run."  
  
*****  
  
Right then, the bakery's front door jingled, alerting Duo and Wufei that they had their first potential customer of the day. The two noticed that he was wearing a clean crisp white shirt and that his khaki pants were neatly ironed. They wouldn't have thought that this man would have worked on Relena's security team.  
  
"How may I help on this fine morning, sir?" asked Wufei who was wearing his chocolate stained apron that had an imprint of red lipstick on its upper right hand corner.   
  
"I need to purchase three dozen doughnuts."  
  
"Okay, then. Do you have any preferences of what you would like to have?"  
  
"Not really." Heero just looked on, while Wufei ordered Duo to the doughnut case, where he was busy stacking a variety of doughnuts into the pink colored boxes. He then walked over to Heero and showed him the variety.  
  
"There are strawberry, blueberry, and custard filled ones in this box. While in this one, it contains chocolate and white glazed ones. And in this box, there's a variety of powdered ones." Duo could sense that he was boring Heero and decided to leave him with the three boxes.  
  
Wufei was at the cash register and rang up the bill, "It will twenty dollars, now." Heero then slipped him a twenty-dollar bill and stood at the cash register, trying to come up on what he should do with his Operation Surprise. "Good day now."  
  
The perfect solider just nodded. The jingle of the bells on the door rang one more time, as Heero left.  
  
Duo went over to Wufei, "Doesn't he seem a little cold to you?"  
  
"For once, you're right about something. Oh well, get back to work, before we start another flour war here."  
  
Outside in the parking lot, Trowa looked up from this newspaper that he was reading. "Looks like Relena and I lost the bet." Heero then knocked on the window and Trowa unlocked the car. "Well, it looks like the first day here went well."  
  
"Are you suggesting something Trowa?"  
  
"Nothing, just nothing. Everyone at the embassy will be shocked." With that, the two drove back and when they finally pulled up into the front part of the embassy, everyone was peeping out their windows, to see if Heero was hit with anything.  
  
Relena looked out from her balcony, "Well, it looks like ten people will be splitting up my money. Oh well, easy come, easy go."   
  
She then headed back towards her office, in which she could already shouts of laughter and joy coming from her staff members' offices. Quatre then walked in, "Looks like the staff members and me have won the bet, now pay up."   
  
"All right, here's the $200 I promised, but remember Quatre, the bet could still be on, right?" she handed the money over to him.  
  
"Right. I'll just keep this in a safe place and when the clock strikes 5:00 P.M the bet is off and that's when everyone gets their money or punishment. But, it looks like you're going to lose, anyhow." He then gave her a wink and left the room.  
  
A couple minutes later, Heero entered into her office and presented her the three pink boxes. "Here you are, the doughnuts that you requested."  
  
"Thanks, Heero. How much do I owe you?" He could sense that she was hiding something, but couldn't put his finger on it.   
  
"It's on me." He paused for a second and asked, "Are you sure everything is fine?"   
  
"Sure, why wouldn't it be?"   
  
"Just nothing, Trowa just gave me a similar feeling this morning. Are you hiding something from my back?"  
  
"Of course not. I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
"Very well then, I'm taking my post outside the door now."   
  
Relena looked on as he was heading out and said to herself, "That was close. I just couldn't tell him that everyone was practically wagering against him. I better place these doughnuts in the staff lounge before everyone starves to death here." In the matter of minutes, a rush of staffers came to the lounge when they saw the scrumptious doughnuts lying out on the table. At the head of the group, it was Aidan leading the pack.  
  
Hours passed by and it was afternoon now, Heero stood silently at his post. At the same time, Aidan and Riley came by, and the two were snickering at him. Aidan spoke up first, "So Heero how does it feel to successfully retrieve doughnuts on your first bakery run?"  
  
"Quiet, Aidan. I don't see why people should be afraid of [this] bakery." He then gave him his famous death glare, which made Aidan run out of the hallway fast. Heero then muttered to himself, "He should be more afraid of the copier machine than the bakery." The thought amused him for a while.  
  
"Heero could you come in here for a minute." Heero was in awe at her request. He quietly walked into her office. "Um...Heero I need to leave for a couple of hours since I have a little family crisis right now. My brother and his fiancé are having last minute wedding plans that they need to deal with now. You could leave early if you want. That's all I have to say."  
  
Heero nodded and she left the office. He said to himself, "This opportunity gives me some time to head back towards the bakery." After he had tracked Quatre down in the front lobby, he told that he was heading back towards the bakery to complete Operation Surprise.  
  
"But, Heero you sure about that? I mean can't you wait 'till tomorrow." He immediately ran to the door and tried to block Heero from leaving.  
  
"I have to go now. Relena will never suspect about me leaving again." With that Heero peeled Quatre from the wooden doorframe, and a distorted face was seen on Quatre since he knew the bet was in jeopardy.  
  
"I have a feeling that I'm not going to like this, one bit."  
  
*****  
  
A yellow taxi cab pulled in front of the bakery, Wufei was looking from the counter as he was wondering who in the world would drive up to their bakery so late in the afternoon.  
  
"Hey Duo, it looks like we have the same customer from this morning."   
  
"It looks that way. I'll be in the kitchen, minding my own business of making chocolate éclairs."  
  
"I hope they're not for Hilde again." A sly devilish grin was seen on his face.  
  
"No idiot, they're for tomorrow's sale." Duo entered through their kitchen door and peeked out in the window to see what was going on once Heero had entered.  
  
"How can I help you again?" A smile was seen on Wufei's face in hopes of getting Heero to buy more of the bakery goods.  
  
"I need to buy a birthday cake."  
  
"All right then. When do you need it by?"  
  
"This Friday."  
  
"Would you like to have any designs or any writing on the cake?"  
  
"Just have, 'Happy Birthday Relena!' on it." Heero became agitated at the countless questions coming from Wufei.  
  
"Do you prefer any type of colors such as pink, light blue, red..."  
  
"I'll choose pink, all right then. Anything else that you would like to say?"  
  
"One last thing, do you have any designs you would like to have on this cake?"  
  
"What can you put on the cake?"  
  
"Well we can create balloons, pictures, and flowers."  
  
Right then, the thought of flower designs crossed Heero's mind. "Flowers might seem reasonable."  
  
As the two were still conversing about possible cake designs, Duo looked on from the kitchen window, when he heard his oven alarm ring off. "Okay, let's see how my éclairs came out." Grabbing a stove mitten from the table, he opened the oven and door. His face just dropped. "What the hell?" Out came a red boxing glove with a bag of flour and Duo was in its path. Right then, it knocked him literally to the floor and for a minute, he laid there on the floor, all covered in white. "Why that Wufei. He rigged my oven." He walked over to Wufei's oven and noticed that his éclairs were in there, baking inside, becoming golden brown and puffy. "All right, mister, have it your way." A flour war was about to erupt again.  
  
With the sound of Duo running crazy in the kitchen, the two outside in the main area, all heard the commotion.   
  
"What's going on in there?" asked Heero, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.  
  
"Oh just nothing. My other baker that you saw this morning is baking chocolate éclairs right at this very moment, so it seems."  
  
All of a sudden, the kitchen door swung open and out came Duo powdered from head to toe, "Wufei this means war!" He then gave a last battle cry, "AARRGH! Prepare to meet your doom!" Right then he raised his right arm and it carried a bag of flour.  
  
*****  
  
Back at the embassy, Quatre was pacing nervously about in his spacious office. "Relena is coming back any minute now and if she finds that Heero went back to the bakery, I could still end up losing the entire bet along with the staff members." A knock was heard on his door, which made him jump. "Oh no, she's back already." He cautiously strolled up to his door and opened it; Riley was standing there. "Oh it's just you. I thought it was Relena."  
  
"Geez, Quatre it looks like you've been walking on pins and needles. Relena just called and she says that she's on her way back here." She paused and noticed Quatre's reaction, in which he began to bit on his fingernails. "Don't tell me that Heero went back to the bakery." She looked at him, waiting for his response.  
  
"Yep."  
  
"I said don't say that to me." She then became agitated.  
  
"Sorry about that."  
  
"Well it looks like I have to hunt down someone to pay me back. Excuse me now." Quatre nodded and he went back to his nervous routine of walking back and forth in his office. As he was doing so, he heard the screams from Aidan as he was trying to escape from Riley chasing him down the hallway.  
  
"Mad woman on the lose. SOMEONE help me."   
  
"You're going to get it, Aidan. When the day is done, comes your worst nightmare."  
  
The two were running down towards the front entrance of the lobby when they saw Relena coming in.  
  
"Hi Ms. Peacecraft," Aidan was now walking casually even though his face was flushed and sweat beads dotted his forehead.  
  
"Hello Aidan. What are you up to?"  
  
Their conversation was interrupted, "I'm going to get you, Aidan. Mark my works." screamed Riley from the stairs, as other staff members looked on.  
  
"Riley what on earth are you doing?" She caught Riley off guard.  
  
"Hi Ms. Peacecraft," a hint of shock in her voice. "I was just chasing Aidan around the embassy to get my money back. That's all."  
  
"Why would you do that? Quatre collected the money from me earlier this morning, once Heero returned from the bakery..." Right then, she knew immediately why the two were chasing each other. She knew that Heero went back to the bakery for a second time. A smile of victory was evident on her face, "We'll see who's the victor by the end of today at 5:00. Carry on you two."  
  
"With pleasure, Ms. Peacecraft." Riley was sure that she was going to get her payback at Aidan.  
  
With the incident behind her, Relena walked up towards Quatre's office after taking three flights of stairs. She knocked on his door, but when no one answered it, she managed to open it. She saw that Quatre had fallen asleep in his swivel chair in hopes of passing the time. She lightly tapped him on the shoulder.   
  
An alarmed Quatre then awoke, "AAAHHH!" A bunch of papers then scattered around him. "Relena don't you ever do that again. I don't want to die of a heart attack at an early age." He began to feel his pulse over his carotid artery.  
  
"Sorry about that. Well, it looks like the bet is still on." She gave him a grin and then left.  
  
"I need to find a new job, before the anxiety level kills me."  
  
"I heard that," she called out from the hallway.  
  
*****  
  
Back at the bakery, Duo was about to aim his bag of flour at the two, when Heero suddenly pulled out his gun from his back pocket and pointed it at Duo.  
  
"Drop that bag of flour from your hand." His finger was on the trigger still and it clicked once.  
  
Duo gulped and in his defeat, he dropped the bag of flour slowly. But, he still held a secret stash of flour in his left hand, in which Heero also saw it.  
  
"I want you to drop the small pile in your left hand also."  
  
"How did you know?" an outraged Duo retorted. Right then, a small avalanche of white drizzled down onto the floor.  
  
Wufei then scoffed, "It serves you right, for trying to ambush me and this customer of ours. Go back to the kitchen with this gentleman and look through the design of flowers that we can put on the cake." Duo obeyed and took Heero to the kitchen and for a few minutes they flipped threw a small design book. Heero eventually concealed his weapon in his back pocket. Unknown to the two of them, Wufei had his own tricks up his sleeves. "This should do the trick." He then went towards the kitchen, holding a pastry bag filled with red strawberry jam. "This is going to be fun. Hehehe!" He then let out an evil cackle.  
  
In the kitchen, the two were huddled around Duo's workstation table and Duo noticed that the kitchen door opened, but no one had entered. He thought to himself, "It must be a false alarm. Maybe it was something that Wufei handled by himself. But that seems strange."  
  
"I've made my decision. It should be this one." The design that Heero had picked out showed the cake being bordered with red roses encircling the cake at the bottom, while at the top a cluster of three roses adorned the surface amidst white frosting.  
  
"It's a lovely choice. All right then, we'll have it ready for you by Thursday night."  
Heero nodded and with that, Duo filled out the order/custom design form for the cake. Once Duo had given him the carbon copy of the form, a strange sound came behind him. The squirting of the pastry bag began.  
  
"I've finally got you, Duo!" A rush of strawberry filling hit Duo as he shoved Heero away from his mad baker/partner. "Um... Wufei you might want to put that down since we have company right now."   
  
"I don't care. Our truce is over!" With that, more strawberry jam was aimed at Duo.  
  
"So you want to have a flour war now, huh? Well BRING IT ON."   
  
Heero looked on the two fighting bakers as he was trying to hide from the barrage of flour and strawberry jam. A pot of chocolate sauce was heading towards him, but he quickly ducked towards his left and landed on the floor, where strawberry jam covered the area. His shirt became stained from the red ooze.  
  
"Everyone's going to hear about this, once I get back." He was standing over the cookie sheet that Duo somehow managed to throw up towards the ceiling just yesterday. Without warning, a barrage of twelve burnt cookies rained on top of him. "What the fuck!" He looked up towards the ceiling and realized that the cookie sheet was right above him. "Oh no..." Right then, it fell on top of him.  
  
The two crazy bakers were still at each other's necks, and once they ran out of ammunition, they stopped and realized that their customer wasn't moving at all.  
  
Duo called over, "Wufei, I think you killed him."   
  
"No, I didn't. What is this cookie sheet doing here, Duo?"  
  
"So that's where it went." giving him a guilty look. "Oops, I must have forgot about it when you distracted me on that day." He smiled holding his chef's hat in his hand and then placing it back on his head.  
  
Wufei then went over to Heero's side and poked him with a spatula. Right then, Heero opened his eyes and it was not a pretty sight to see. His shirt was stained with red strawberry filling and parts of chocolate chip cookies clung to his white shirt. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at the two bakers, "I don't know what you're trying to pull here, if one of you moves, I'll shoot."  
  
Right then at the worst time, Duo was about to sneeze and within a second, Heero fired at the chef covered in red and white. The bullet pierced through the top of his hat. "Hey you ruined my favorite chef's hat." Heero continued to point the gun again and prepared to shoot.  
  
The two bakers covered in a disarray of pastry fillings cringed at that thought and stood like statues during the period in which Heero headed out towards the door. "If you two don't clean up your act, I'll have the cops called over here." He headed out towards the front and once the two bakers heard the jingle of the bells on their front door, they immediately ran out after him.  
  
"Where did he go?" asked Duo, who was looking down a nearby street.  
  
"I don't know, but we better get a move on the cake since it's for Relena Peacecraft."  
  
"You're right, but do you think he'll come back again?"  
  
"Beats me."  
  
*****  
  
Once Heero had left the bakery, he immediately hailed a taxi in hopes no one saw him in broad daylight. The taxi driver looked at Heero questioningly, but he didn't dare to ask since Heero gave him his all too famous death glare when the driver looked through his rear view mirror.  
  
"Where to?" replied the middle-aged driver.  
  
"To the Peacecraft Embassy. When you get there, pull up into the back driveway."  
  
"You got it."  
  
Within a matter of ten minutes, the taxi pulled up in the back driveway, where no one would have expected him to come. Heero paid the fare and the taxi pulled away. He paused for a brief moment and scanned the entrance to make sure that no one not even the staff members were to see him, but once he opened the door, Relena was standing there, waiting for him.  
  
"There you are." She noticed that his shirt was more of a pinkish colored and tried to hold in her laugh. Heero could see that she was trying to do her best. Her face became a slight red and in a matter of thirty seconds, all hell broke lose within the embassy. "It looks like you're not the Perfect Soldier after all." She continued to laugh hysterically.  
  
"Not funny."  
  
TBC  
  
*****  
  
So how was that for chapter 7? Let me know what you think, I would really appreciate it, and thanks. Until next time! ;) 


	8. Sprinkles of Payback

Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews that have been coming in so far. I've been bogged with homework since day one of second semester. Disclaimers go as usual, I don't own Gundam Wing or its characters. But, the two OC characters are mine. Anyhow, hope you all like this. ^^  
  
*****  
  
Sprinkles of Payback  
  
Aidan quickly ran down the stairs to the sounds of Relena's hysterical laughter. "What's going on?" he pointed towards Relena. She then pointed towards Heero, who was standing at the doorway entrance still with a serious face. "Oh my god." And right then, he burst out with his own laughs. "I never would have guessed that you would get hit with anything."  
  
Heero began to walk towards him and gave him a death glare and grabbed his tie at the same time. Within less than a second, Aidan's face went from red to white, and he began to shake nervously. "Okay, I get the point." he squeaked. Right then, Heero loosened the grip on the tie and Aidan let out a sigh of relief as he was trying to get his breathing back to normal. By this time, the rest of the staff members including Riley, Quatre, and Trowa came down from their respective offices when they heard the period of silence coming from the hallway. In a matter of moments, they all had gathered at the top balcony of the stairs and looked down. Everyone's eyes were filled with shock and disapproval that they had lost their bet except for Trowa, who smiling to himself. But then, a second wave of laughter flooded through the embassy again.  
  
Heero stood there contemplating his next move, while Relena looked on just a few feet away from him. She thought to herself, "Poor Heero, this was all of my fault." He then began to reach towards his back pocket, which was still drenched with the strawberry jam. With that as a hint, everyone immediately stopped their laughing all at once. At that moment, if anyone had dropped a pin in the room, it would echo throughout the entire hallway.  
  
"I'm heading back to my post." He then left the area, warning everyone not to bother him with his cold gaze. After he had left, everyone began to talk about the bet. The clock had struck five.  
  
"It looks like the bet is off now," yelled Relena from the bottom of the staircase and looking towards her group of mutinous staff members. "Oh Quatre, where are you?" He appeared sheepishly before her and gave her a wry smile.  
  
"It looks like you win this time." He came down the stairs and handed her money back. Once that was accomplished, the room cleared out like a herd of cattle, but Relena sternly called everyone back to their places.  
  
"I'm not done here, not just yet. What about my end of the bargain, in which I create some type of punishment for all of you except for Trowa."  
  
Aidan then spoke for the group, "I guess we must have forgot about that part."  
  
"Oh quit it, Aidan, you're the number one person on my list still. Anyhow, the punishment that you all will be receiving is a 20% decrease in your next pay checks!"  
  
"What!?!" cried out mostly everyone in the room.  
  
Aidan then fired back, "You must be joking. 20% decrease in our paychecks, that's enough to pay for some groceries or part of the rents that we have to pay for our apartments/condos."  
  
Riley then reacted, "A 20% pay cut?" She looked through the crowd of people and narrowed her eyesight at her intended target, "There he is that scum." She ran down the stairs and began to attack Aidan at his back. "You told me that I wasn't going to lose this bet and now Ms. Peacecraft is going to cut my paycheck by 20%! Why you?"  
  
"Easy on the hair, Riley!" screamed Aidan, who was trying to protect himself from his secret crush.  
  
While that was going on, Relena looked around as everyone thought that she was serious. She was getting amused at everyone's expense of shock written in their eyes. She thought to herself, "They don't know what they are getting into." More rages of anger filled the room as everyone realized their mistakes in their betting wager. "Can I have everyone's attention again?"  
  
When she made that announcement, the entire group became silent just to hear more bad news coming from her.  
  
"I WAS just joking. You don't have to get all fired up just for one thing. But here's your punishment, as you all know, we have a big event coming up this coming Friday in which we're hosting diplomats. Is everyone still following me?"  
  
Quatre looked on blankly, "You sure about that? I don't recall scheduling anything of the sort on my palm pilot."  
  
"Memos of this were sent to each and one of you during the time of YOUR wagering activity." She then held out the magenta sheet specifying about the diplomat congregation.  
  
Quatre then interrupted her again, "Why couldn't they have gone to Washington D.C. or some other embassy and not this one? Isn't this a little too sudden?"  
  
"Now, now. Memos of this were sent to all of you and I don't think it's scheduled abruptly. Besides they chose our embassy because of our location here in Canada. Anyhow, I want all of you to prepare the east wing for the gala by decorating it, making food preparations, and making arrangements for entertainment, which applies to mostly everyone in this room. Everything should be done by TONIGHT, it's better to be ready than sorry." She then pointed to various staff members on what their tasks should be and after she completed that, she went over to the remaining staff members, "Quatre I want you to create the invitations and guest lists along with Riley. While as for you Aidan."  
  
"Oh no, here it comes." He began to have sweat drops on his forehead, while at the same time he began to fidget with his tie.  
  
"I want you to make 50 COPIES of this report." She handed him 60 pages, in which Aidan noticed that it was back to back. "Have fun now, I need it by TONIGHT. If you don't complete your task, you will be FIRED. Understood?"  
  
He then contested her statement, "But this is going to take me over two days to complete."  
  
"Stop your whining. You might as well get a jump on it."  
  
Aidan then obliged, "Yes ma'am."  
  
*****  
  
Back at the bakery, Duo and Wufei were busy cleaning up the strawberry jam and flour mess.  
  
"So what are we going to do about his cake?" asked Duo who was still mourning over his beloved chef's hat.  
  
"We could hand deliver it to the address that a." Wufei then ran over to the stack of order forms that seem to keep piling on his desk. After going through an endless stack of white, he finally managed to find the one with Duo's scribblish handwriting on it. "Ahh, here we are. It's made out to a Heero Yuy."  
  
"Well then that sounds interesting, I now have a name to my hat murder." called Duo from the floor. He was trying to scrub the sticky strawberry jam away.  
  
"I guess so. But he told me to put 'Happy Birthday Relena!' on it."  
  
Duo looked up from the floor, "Maybe its for his girlfriend. Did you ever think of that? Or wait a minute, I forgot that you're Mr. Punctual and that you have NO love life?"  
  
"Don't you dare start with me again! As for my love life, I'm already seeing someone." glared Wufei.  
  
"And who is that again?"  
  
"None of your business!"  
  
"Let me guess," Duo began to scratch at the left side of his head. "It's that supplier of ours down a street from us. The one who has brown hair that is older than you, if I'm correct."  
  
Wufei became agitated, "I have a pot of chocolate sauce just waiting for you. It would be a shame to dirty the floor again after your three hours of scrubbing."  
  
"You wouldn't!" exclaimed Duo.  
  
"I would." He then was about to begin to lift the brass pot of chocolate sauce. Right then, Duo came careening over to Wufei's side and Wufei noticed Duo's response of the "NOOOO!" "Gotch ya again, Maxwell."  
  
"Wanna think again, Chang." Underneath Duo's red stained cooking apron, concealed the red boxing glove and once Duo released it, Wufei had no way escaping from it. In a matter of seconds, Wufei fell to the floor. Right then a shower of chocolate spilled over Wufei. "Now this is what I call SWEET revenge." chimed Duo.  
  
Wufei wiped a layer of chocolate from his eyes, "Why you sneaky scamp!" He tried to get up, but fell down again on the chocolaty floor.  
  
"I think we're even for now. It looks like you might need the mop and bucket more than I do." He then handed him the items, and when Wufei looked into the bucket, it was filled with red grimy water. "You better mop it up before the chocolate hardens on this cold floor. Otherwise, you might need to get down on your hands and knees with some type of cookie cutter and create chocolate shapes." Duo then winked at him and headed towards the stock room to prepare for Relena's birthday cake that would be baked some time tomorrow. "All righty then, let's begin with the flour."  
  
*****  
  
The clock had now struck seven and everyone was still busy with their duties in the east wing, while Aidan was still in the copy room. "Ms. Peacecraft, printer #2 just got jammed."  
  
"You need to get a move on it, Aidan because you'll never finish in time."  
  
"This is going to drive me crazy. AAAHHH!" He was pulling on his tie leaving behind black smudge marks.  
  
As the printer problem progressed, Relena decided to check on her remaining so-called slaves. She headed towards the main dining area of the east wing and once she walked in, the dining area was transformed into a spectacular ballroom. She was in awe in how the staff members completely transformed the area within a matter of two hours. The layers of dusts vanished and everything was spick and span. She could even her reflection on the windows that needed to be washed before.  
  
While Relena was still admiring the ballroom, Riley and Quatre came in with the invitations and the guest lists.  
  
"Here it is, Ms. Peacecraft. All of the names and honored guests are here. It took us a while since the database needed to be updated, but we finished."  
  
"Thank you." She was concealing something within her smile.  
  
"Ms. Peacecraft is everything all right?"  
  
"Yes. Could you tell Aidan to come down from the copy room?"  
  
"All right then." After excusing herself from Relena and Quatre, Riley walked up towards the copy room and saw Aidan fervently making multiple copies of the 60-page report through a small crack in the door. She giggled to herself, "This is very amusing." She knocked on the door twice.  
  
"Oh no, Ms. Peacecraft is back again and I'm not even finished. Just one minute, please." He then barricaded the door with three boxes of Xerox paper.  
  
"What's going on in there?" she whispered to herself out in the hallway, as sounds of boxes being moved were heard from within. Riley then continued to knock until the sound of the Xerox machines drove her crazy. After standing out in the hallway for nearly ten minutes, she yelled, "Aidan let me in." and she continued to pound on the door as if she was a maniac.  
  
Aidan then muttered, "I'm toast, for sure."  
  
"This is child's play. All right, Riley time to barge in." After grabbing the hold of the knob and using all of her weight to force the door to open, Aidan became alarmed at the sight before him. The door shook violently for a minute before it subsided.  
  
"I wonder if I should open it and let Ms. Peacecraft yell at me vehemently. That would be the end of me." He then loosened his tie and walked over towards the door, more pounding was heard but then subsided again. With a quick move, he carefully removed the maze of boxes that he arranged and unlocked the door. Once everything was done, he went back to his copier and began to print, acting all innocent like as if nothing had happened.  
  
"All right, here it goes." Riley moved a few steps back and rammed into the door, causing her to run full force into the room and tripping over the entrance.  
  
Right then, Aidan turned from his stack of copies and shock was etched in his brown eyes. He looked at the person who had fallen onto the floor. "Oh my gosh, I'm SOOO sorry Riley, honestly. I thought you were Ms. Peacecraft."  
  
"Yeah, right." He then helped her back on her feet, while she tried to readjust her rimless glasses. As he did, one of Riley's business suit buttons popped off from the top near her neckline. "Look what you made me do." She went over to pick the renegade button and yelled in his face, "Now they're going to think that we had."  
  
But before she could finish her sentence, Aidan cut her off, "Now don't go ballistic on me." He looked towards her and saw a fire in her eyes and right then at that moment, something ran through him.  
  
"Don't go 'ballistic!' What am I going to do then?"  
  
He walked over to her and stood right before for a second. Her eyes cast a spell over him and on impulse, he kissed her right there in the copy room.  
  
She pulled away from him and slapped him across his face, "What on earth were you thinking?"  
  
"I don't know, but here's a solution to one of your problems." He held out his hand, revealing a small metallic paper clip.  
  
"Very funny. I don't know who are Aidan. Ms. Peacecraft told me to get you because we're having another meeting, right now at this VERY instant! And at the very same time, you knock me over when I was trying to barge in and kiss me all in one day. How typical of you!" She left abruptly and right when Aidan was going to apologize again, Riley slammed the door in his face. Outside in the hallway, she heard a thump, "I think that's going to leave a mark for a while or maybe indefinitely. I wonder how long I should keep this game up of playing hard to get, oh well." She then headed back towards the dining hall, where everyone was waiting for them.  
  
Inside the room, Aidan was dazed for quite some time until he finally came to his senses. He rubbed his lower part of the jaw and noticed that it was slightly bleeding. "This is going to be great. She sure is feisty, but that won't stop me from loving her." He went back on his feet and collected the papers that Riley ran over as she headed out the room just a couple of minutes ago. Right at that moment, he came across the small metallic paper clip that he tried to offer to Riley as a makeshift button.  
  
*****  
  
Relena looked toward the staircase, where Riley was walking down from, "Where's Aidan?" She noticed that Riley had a little smirk on her face.  
  
"He's a little tied up right now. The printer chewed him up." she said sarcastically.  
  
"Aren't you being a little harsh, Riley?"  
  
"No, I'm just getting my revenge that's all." With her final saying, the group noticed that her black business suit was disorganized and wrinkled. As conservative as she was, everyone knew that Riley dressed casually and modestly. But they noticed that her top torso area was showing, revealing her pale skin. This led the entire group into having their own thoughts about the couple. Riley noticed that everyone gave her a questioning look, since everyone knew that Aidan liked Riley. She then spoke up in a criticizing tone, "For everyone that needs to know, we didn't have sex."  
  
"Sure," replied a staff member who was standing at the staircase with his hand massaging his chin.  
  
"Whatever you say, Aidan."  
  
"How did you know?" shocked was filled in his voice.  
  
"Never mind." She then shoved him away once he approached her.  
  
"Can I have everyone's attention, please? You probably all hate me right now. Right?" A wave of murmurs and groans filled the hall. "I have a confession to make. This was all of a hoax, I'm sorry to say." She looked towards her staff and noticed that their eyes will filled with anger.  
  
"What you made us do this for nothing?" cried out the fifteen year-old boy, who was covered in dust.  
  
"Yep. Sorry about all of the headaches and frustration I caused. It's for your own good for betting."  
  
"Then what about the food arrangements and the entertainment. Should I scrub those off the lists?" cried out another angry staff member, who made various phone calls to fulfill Relena's demands.  
  
"You might as well call them back and say that it was all a mistake. Or you can use them in one of your parties. You never know when you're going to need them again."  
  
With that response, the staff member threw the papers in the air along with his hands in frustration. "I might as well quit and move back to the states, where I can find a decent job."  
  
"I should have known something was fishy." replied Quatre, who was cracking his knuckles from too much typing.  
  
Relena looked towards Aidan, whose face was just completely appalled. "What's the matter, Aidan? Feeling stressed out?"  
  
His face became red for a brief moment, " 'Feeling stressed?' I'm furious; I thought you wanted those reports by TONIGHT. I could've been home by now sitting in front of my TV watching hockey."  
  
Riley then came over to him, "Well, it looks like you worked for nothing. See you around, copy boy." She was holding her shirt at the top trying to conceal her neckline.  
  
Aidan looked at her as she headed out of the room in dismay, his heart was crushed for now. The pain from Riley's door incident was still felt throughout his chin. He whispered underneath his breath, "I really blew it this time. I'm such a stupid jerk. How am I going to make this up to Riley?" His eyes then gazed towards to Relena who was giving out her last final orders of the night.  
  
"You're all dismissed." Mumbles and discontent filled the room as everyone was heading out to go back to their homes. Within a matter of minutes, the room cleared out, leaving only Relena just to herself. "It's a shame that no one will use this room for a long time. It looks so grand right now." She headed out and turned off the lights.  
  
She walked through an endless row of hallways that were filled with various oil paintings of the Canadian landscape depicting lakes and open fields. After admiring them for a couple of minutes to de-stress herself, she then headed back to her office. She noticed that Heero wasn't standing at his usual post, but she didn't care. Right then she turned towards her office and when she opened it, she found Heero there in the dark.  
  
"Heero?" she whispered.  
  
TBC  
  
*****  
  
How was that for chapter 8? Hopefully I answered some of your questions about the locations and all, I don't want to give too much away, not just yet. Anyhow, more madness and craziness is about to start again! Just wait and see, promise! Please review, your comments are always appreciated, and thanks. ^-^ Ciao for now. 


	9. A Dusting of Love

Hi everyone, sorry for this late update. (This will probably happen more frequently over the next two months because of my classes.) Thanks again for the reviews that have been coming in, I really appreciate it. Disclaimers go as usual. Anyhow, hope you all like this. ^^  
  
*****  
  
A Dusting of Love  
  
Relena peered into the darken room as she waited for her response. She walked in and looked around to see if everything was in order. She noticed that one of the windows near her office desk was open. She headed towards the window and looked out towards the night sky, admiring the stars. After recollecting her thoughts about today, she shut the window and turned around, a flash of Persian eyes pierced the darkness. "There you are. I thought you already went home for the night to escape from today's incident."  
  
Heero began to approach closer to her, "I told you that I was heading back to my post for the night." He began to unbutton the first three buttons of his stained shirt and eventually he became faced to face with Relena. At that moment, both of their pulses quickened and neither of them knew on what to say to each other.  
  
Relena looked into his eyes and saw the pain he stored in them. She wanted to kiss him right then and there, but something kept holding her back, the fear of denial. She then broke the silence, "I'm sorry for everything that I caused you today. I didn't mean to bet against you in Quatre's and Trowa's game. Everything was so blown out of proportion ever since Quatre was floured from the start. This is all of my fault. I should have never asked you to be involved in the first place."  
  
Heero then placed his index finger on her pale pink lips to silence her before any more damage could be done. "It's getting late, we'd better leave now for the night. Everyone else including our chauffeur has left. I'm calling for a cab."  
  
"All right Heero." She then walked over to her office closet and began to rummage through the various items to busy herself. "Where did I put that blasted bottle? I know I placed it on one of these shelves. For a person like me, I can never seem to setup an organizational system." As she reached for a second shelf, an avalanche of small boxes tumbled down on her. She felt her head to see if any of them caused bruises or cuts, "Yipe, that was close."  
  
"You all right in there?" called Heero from the hallway.  
  
She cleared her throat, "I'm fine, just give me a couple of more minutes." She then knelt down and picked up ones of the flower-printed boxes that revealed a pile of photos showing her working in her office. After sifting through the pile of photos, she noticed one of them had Heero standing in the background with an expressionless face. "Oh, Heero."  
  
"Are you coming yet?" he called out.  
  
"I'm coming, all right."  
  
Heero peered into the room and noticed that Relena was carrying something in her hands along with a small box. "It's about time." He then looked on as Relena did her ritual of locking her office in case anyone tried to burglarize it during the night.  
  
Within a matter of minutes, the two were outside waiting for a cab to come pick them up. They stood there silently until Relena broke the silence. "I think you might need this more than I do." She handed him a small brown bag and Heero looked inside and noticed that it was laundry detergent. He gave her a questionable look. "It should help get the pink stains off of your shirt within a matter moments because I don't suppose you want to have a pink shirt in your wardrobe. I've even used it myself whenever I spill something on my dresses and skirts."  
  
Heero muttered, "Thanks."  
  
She nodded in response and with that the taxicab finally pulled into the back driveway of the embassy. The driver glanced through his rear view mirror and noticed that it was the same passenger from the afternoon. He noticed that Heero was looking towards his direction. "Where to?"  
  
*****  
  
The bakery had finally closed for the night, both Duo and Wufei had tired looks on their faces. "If you ever drag me into another entrepreneur business deal for this bakery, I'm refusing Wufei."  
  
"Why, you don't like the pay you're making here? You're always welcome to leave if you want." he scoffed. He began to reach over towards his small pile of flour that he had acquired during the day.  
  
"It's not that. I think I'm going to crack my back at any moment after scrubbing the kitchen floor and counters." He paused for a while surveying the area around him and noticed that Wufei was being devious as usual in trying to gain back his revenge.  
  
"How do you think I felt after your chocolate mess? I think I'm going to collapse any moment because of my knees are so bruised. The mop of yours didn't work at all."  
  
"Oh well." Duo headed back towards the kitchen and pitched his dirty apron on one of the metal hooks of the coat rack. He then grabbed his deflated chef's hat and walked towards the kitchen door. At that moment, he called from the door, "And don't you dare throw that flour on me because I saw you reach for it. Besides don't you think that we should create new routines like this one."  
  
"What the hell!" The door flew open towards the left side and smacked Wufei off his guard. Before he even knew it, he felt a sensation of wetness on his face and chest.  
  
"It serves you right for trying to ambush me a second time during this day. I'm leaving now." In cowboy fashion, he swung his water pistol and placed it in his pocket. "I still have water left in that baby."  
  
Wufei then wiped his wet face with his chocolate apron, which left a chocolate smudge on his face and with a feeling of agitation, he called out towards him, "It's your turn to close down the for the night."  
  
"Whatever, I've covered your shifts so many times before. Good night. And you might want to look in mirror before you leave."  
  
Wufei watched from the éclair counter as Duo sauntered out the door and into the night. "I wonder what he meant by that, but he's probably joking as usual." He then decided to check the mirror and noticed a small chocolate stain on his nose. "Duo is going to get it eventually from me. I'm always stuck here! The only reason that he's leaving is because of Hilde. This bites, I'll never get any sleep anymore." He began to count the money that the bakery raised today and after crunching numerous keys on the register, he could have swore that he heard someone entering through the back door, but decided to drop that thought from his mind. He muttered to himself, "I might as well marry this bakery for life and live here for all I care."  
  
"That's an awful shame."  
  
"Didn't I tell you to stay home?"  
  
"Yeah, but I bought you a cup of coffee since it looks like you need one just right about now." She handed him one of the hot cups that she held in her hand.  
  
He took a sip, "Ahh, that's much more like it."  
  
"I knew you would like it. I bought over more of the supplies you needed such as the chocolate powder and baking powder. I was wondering why did you need one whole case of baking powder? I wouldn't think that you two would use it very often over a two week period."  
  
"We seem to use too much of it all of a sudden."  
  
"You sure because if I know you, your hiding something behind your back." She gave him a questioning look.  
  
"Silence, WOMAN."  
  
"All right I get the picture. Need any help?"  
  
"No." he said bluntly. "Just stand over there, I'll be done in a matter of minutes."  
  
Sally waited by the corner window as she heard Wufei ringing the receipts up for the night and when she heard the cash register finally stopped ringing, she knew that he was finished. "It's about time, I thought you would never finish for the night. Now where did we leave off last time?"  
  
A grin was seen on his face, "I think I know."  
  
"Really."  
  
*****  
  
Two blocks away from the bakery, Duo was making his way towards Hilde's apartment. "I wonder if she's still up. She probably already went to sleep since she has work tomorrow, unless she's a night owl?" He continued through his dilemma of seeing Hilde for the night, but after crossing a small intersection leading to Sugar Lane, he finally made up his mind.  
  
Within two minutes, he scaled the steps leading to her apartment. A small ray of light seeped from a back window. "I think she's still up. Here it goes." A ring was heard from the inside of the apartment. Duo's heart began to race, thump-thump, thump-thump.  
  
"Hey Duo." said Hilde in her sweet voice. "Why don't you come in?" She opened the door and Duo acknowledged.  
  
"I just finished my shift just an hour ago. Am I interrupting you?" He was fidgeting with his chef's hat.  
  
"Not really, I was just about to sleep in for the night. So, what brings you here? You look like you've been worked to death."  
  
Duo let out a sigh and a disgruntled look on his face, "It was another fiasco at the bakery. Some Heero Yuy ordered a cake and throughout that time, Wufei was scheming a plot against me. In the process, the customer got strawberry jam on him along with chocolate chips and he murdered my hat. Here's the proof." He then showed her his deflated hat, which had a single bullet hole that was present in the front and the rear sides.  
  
"Sorry to hear about that." She then pondered on her next response, "How about this, I can mend your hat for you, if you like. I'm pretty good in stitching things up."  
  
"Thanks anyway, but no thanks. I'll probably buy a new chef's hat anyway, whenever I get the time."  
  
"You still need some cheering up. How about this, I can go get some chocolate chip cookies from my kitchen as a little midnight snack for you?"  
  
"You don't need to trouble yourself, honestly Hilde. The last time I was here you had a bat in your hands, remember?"  
  
"How could I ever forget about that? I thought you were the "intruder" in my apartment. I nearly killed you with it."  
  
"I know what you mean, I think I still have the bruises from that night."  
  
The two then laughed for the first time together and their conversation became slow-paced again. The two were trying their best in keeping their conversation up. But within each of their hearts, both of them knew about something else that they both wanted.  
  
"I best be heading back now. I don't want to keep you from your sleep because of your work."  
  
"I guess I'll see you around." She walked him towards the exit and the two stood there reading each other's eyes, which held the emotion of desire. Within minutes, the two kissed in the doorway.  
  
Duo finally managed to control himself, "I probably should go now." He then slipped in a couple of more kisses.  
  
"I think you should because at this rate, we both would be dead tired tomorrow. Good night now."  
  
"See ya around, sweetie." He headed out the door and pretended to walk down towards the street. After hiding behind a small bush besides Hilde's apartment, he headed towards her front door and pushed the doorbell again.  
  
She opened the door, "You've been only gone for less than five minutes and your back for more."  
  
"What's a guy supposed to do?" He slipped in again and passionately kissed her for the second time.  
  
She then broke one of the kisses, "All right, only for this one time. You'd better not make this a habit of yours, even though it seems like we've been down this road before."  
  
*****  
  
The ride to the Peacecraft residence was uneventful as Heero and Relena sat in the back of the cab. During the ride, Relena began to doze off and she eventually fell asleep, while Heero looked on. He noticed that she had smile on her face and it made his heart skip a beat again. He couldn't control his love for Relena any longer, he felt that his mind was going to explode any minute. He pondered to himself, "Damn Heero, when are you ever going to show her your true feelings?" He wrestled that thought throughout the rest of the ride.  
  
The cab made several left and right turns and afterwards, it was on a straight path towards the Peacecraft residence. Heero was about to fall asleep himself, but he then felt something on his right shoulder. Relena had managed to have her head slip onto his shoulder. "This is great. I can't even fall asleep right now." He gently caressed her hair that had fallen over her forehead. The smell of fresia filled the air.  
  
The old man looked from his rearview mirror and saw the couple. "We're here now," he called out.  
  
"Thanks." Heero gently awoke Relena from her slumber by gently calling her name.  
  
She blinked a couple of times and noticed that her head was directly lying on his shoulder. "Did I fall asleep?" He nodded at her response. "I told you that if I ever fall asleep, you should wake me because."  
  
He then cut her off, "I didn't mind. Let me walk you to your front door." He first got out of the cab and took Relena by her hand and led her out. He then called to the cab driver, "Wait right here." and the driver acknowledged.  
  
"You don't have to keep doing this Heero. I feel bad for everything that I've caused you still."  
  
"You don't have to keep apologizing."  
  
"But I feel like I should."  
  
A wave of silence washed across the couple for the first time. And for the first time, the two felt something surge through them, a spark of love, perhaps. The two looked through each other's eyes and made their move. "Relena." Before he could finish his sentence, he was cut off by a kiss.  
  
"I wanted to do that for a long time now."  
  
Heero's eyes were filled with shock, as he wanted to complete his move before she did. Relena noticed that to, "I guess I beat you to it."  
  
He shrugged and said in his usual tone, "Good night."  
  
"Good night." She unlocked her front door with a brass key and headed inside. Once inside, she said to herself in excitement, "I can't believe I just did that." and let out a soft sigh. She then walked towards her room.  
  
Heero continued to walked down the cold concrete pavement, "I never would have expected that from her, not just yet." As he was walking towards the taxi, the driver witnessed the whole ordeal from his seat. Right then, Heero opened the back passenger door and headed inside.  
  
"Where to?"  
  
"The Maple Springs apartment complex on 71st."  
  
"You got it." A moment of silence in their conversation became apparent until the old driver spoke up, "I noticed that you're in love with her."  
  
"Pardon me? I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
"Oh quit playing games. It's written in your eyes and when the first time she kissed you, you felt something go through you. Didn't you?"  
  
"What are you, cupid?"  
  
"Maybe, but do you see my bag of arrows or wings? Or even my bow for crying out loud. But that's beside the point, even when I was driving you two tonight, you have love but you don't express it that much. I'm just saying don't blow your chance because you never know when you'll have a second chance to express your feelings."  
  
Heero pondered that thought, and then muttered in his usual tone, "Whatever. Just get me home ASAP."  
  
The two became silent for the rest of the ride until the cab finally pulled up to Heero's apartment complex. "Here's the cab fare and keep the tip."  
  
"Thanks. I'll see you around and remember what I said. Good night."  
  
"Good night." With that, Heero watched the yellow cab pull away into the night. He then entered through the glass looking building and scaled a small flight of stairs still carrying the laundry detergent in his hands. After existing at floor number four, Heero ventured out into the hallway and pulled out his keys to unlock his apartment door. He stumbled in, exhausted from the day's and night's excitement.  
  
He headed towards his bathroom and started his shower stall with lukewarm water. At first, the shirt clung to him like glue but after a couple minutes of endless torture to his shirt, he finally managed to peel it off. Crusts of strawberry jam fell to the floor along with some of the chocolate chips. "That's not good." he muttered. He then stepped into the shower and took a twenty-minute shower in hopes of getting the sticky jam off of his back and shoulders. By the end of his shower, half of his soap bar was gone. After donning on his usual attire of pajamas that consisted his green tank top and black spandex shorts, he headed towards his bathroom with a small mop and mopped up the jammy mess on the floor. He then headed towards his kitchen sink and prepared a water bath for his "pink" shirt. After everything was ready, he tossed the shirt into the soapy water, bubbles began to form once he had added small dose of Relena's laundry detergent.  
  
"This better work." With that a fizzing sound came from his sink. Believing that it was a good sign, Heero decided to sleep for the night and with that the conversation he had with the cab driver played over in his mind as he tossed and turned.  
  
"Show your love." a voice whispered. An image of Relena kissing him flashed across his mind and he then awoke in a cold sweat, his Persian eyes looking towards the ceiling in a daze.  
  
TBC  
  
*****  
  
How was that for chapter 9? Please review, your comments are always greatly appreciated and thank you. ^_^ Stay tune for chapter 10! Ciao for now! 


	10. The Doughboy

Hi everyone, thanks for the reviews again. Disclaimers go as usual. Without further ado, here's chapter 10!! ^^  
  
*****  
  
The Doughboy  
  
"Oh, Heero," she whispered. He nodded in response. The two stood in a pink rose garden and it was nightfall. In the background, some music was heard and Heero began to waltz with her. The smell of the freesia along with pink roses overwhelmed Heero and his senses. Relena had placed her head on his shoulders and allowed Heero to lead her in the dance. The two continued to waltz until the music had stopped. By that time, clouds began to appear in the low horizon and the smell of rain was apparent. "It looks like it's going to rain. We should head back now before the downpour. Everyone's probably wondering what happened to us." Relena then began to walk towards the park's exit, but Heero gently jerked her back towards him.  
  
"Stay for a little longer." His eyes were filled with the feeling of desire. With an instant, Heero enveloped Relena with his arms and looked into her blue eyes, searching within her soul. His warm embrace lulled her into a trance of romance. The two stood there, as it seemed time stood still for the two lovers. The winds began to pick up and the pink roses began to sway in the wind. The smell of rain was getting closer.  
  
"Heero, I think we should go now." She looked pleadingly into his Persian eyes.  
  
"Relena.just wait." he whispered under his breath. He moved closer to her and felt her warmth against his chest. His lips moved closer to hers and he felt her pulse quicken.  
  
A couple of raindrops began to fall on their faces, but that didn't deter Heero. He continued to kiss her until they both gasped for air. He kissed her again and Relena just melted in his embrace, as he continued. Right then, a sudden downpour came across the two lovers, drenching Relena's light lilac printed dress and Heero's white shirt.  
  
She pulled him away for one brief moment and looked into his eyes, and saw the man that she had fallen in love with. She saw him standing there with water running through his hair and his breathing rapid. She looked into her own heart and realized what she wanted, the desire to be next to him throughout time.  
  
"Heero."  
  
The two became locked again with each of them kissing and caressing one another. This time none of them stopped to take a breather. With the rain continue to fall, the two managed to find shelter under a gazebo, where it kept most of the rain out.  
  
Heero had gently laid Relena on the cold marble floor and for a while, the two kissed and Heero began to unzip her lilac dress. As for Relena, she felt his warm hands roam around her back and she began to undress him. The two looked into each other's eyes and saw their future unfold.  
  
In the distance, voices were heard calling out their names. "Ms. Peacecraft are you out here?" It was Riley calling in the distance. She was followed by Aidan, who wasn't too far behind from her and he called out for Heero. "Hey, Riley, let's get back to the party. We're going to be missing the delicious food."  
  
"I'm not leaving until I find the two of them. If you want, you can run back and look like a fool in front of all of the guests." With that, Riley kept walking throughout the rose garden in hopes of finding the renegade couple, while Aidan became silent on their little scavenger hunt.  
  
"Why do they have to spoil the moment?" whispered Relena. "Oh, Heero." She looked into his eyes as they began to kiss again.  
  
"Beep.beep.beep.."  
  
"What?!? NO!!! It was just getting to the good part!" Relena found herself on the floor of her bedroom, wrapped up in her white blanket. She got up and slammed her snooze button again, in hopes of catching a few more z's, and she then fell back onto her bed. For the next few minutes, pictures from the night before toyed with her mind. She was about to fall asleep for the second time but "BEEP BEEP!! BEEP!!" Her alarm rang obnoxiously again, but with a louder tone than a normal alarm.  
  
"Not again, I guess it wasn't meant to be." She peeped from her covers and saw the fluorescent green digits show 5:30A.M. After a couple of minutes of moaning to herself, she finally got up and started her usual morning routine of taking two cups of coffee.  
  
*****  
  
Across town, Duo and Wufei were already up and running about in their little bakery with their ovens all-baking away either filled with golden brown croissants, chocolate fudge brownies, and éclairs. While in two brass pots filled with cooking oil, doughnuts were being made.  
  
Duo noticed that Wufei wasn't his "usual" self because he knows that Wufei's workstation table was a little messy. "Hey pal, what's up with your messy table? You usually have a pet peeve about disorganization." He then held up a questionable object, which was a pair of feminine pantyhose.  
  
Wufei quickly grabbed those out of Duo's grasp and lashed out at him, "Can't a guy a be a little messy at times. Even, if I'm Mr. Punctual to you, it doesn't mean I always have to live by the book."  
  
"I think you're evading the subject at hand," giving him a questionable look. "I always thought that you practiced what you preached!"  
  
"Never mind. End of subject."  
  
With that, Duo went back to Wufei's table and noticed the flour patterns on it. He also began to stare at Wufei's neckline, which had a little red mark on it.  
  
"It looks like someone had a little too much fun in here." quipped Duo.  
  
"I think the same can be applied to you at Hilde's."  
  
"Whatever, I'm going to work on that cake right now." He then ran over to his table and minded his own business for the day. After mixing the ingredients, a yellow batter began to take shape and he then dumped it into the baking pan. He then set the oven and placed the tray inside.  
  
An evil grin was plastered on Wufei's face as he looked towards the direction of Duo, "That fool, he doesn't know what he's in for. He didn't even re-measure his ingredients especially the baking powder and flour. He doesn't even know that I switched the powder with baking soda, since they all look the same!!! Hehehe!! I finally got him where I wanted him to be in the first place, turning this bakery into a mockery. I'll show him."  
  
"Anything wrong, Wufei?"  
  
"Oh nothing, just nothing." He went back to his folding of his dough to prepare a batch of French bread.  
  
*****  
  
Two streets over and down a couple of blocks, Heero was already up and the first thing he did was in the surveying of his kitchen sink. Within the metal indentation, the water was a translucent pink/red and along the sides of the sink, tiny bubbles lined up the edges. He thought to himself whether he should throw his shirt away since it looked like was already a lost cause to salvage anything, but curiosity got the best of him.  
  
After searching through his cabinets and drawers, he managed to find a small plastic whisk that he never knew that he had in the first place. He cautiously stepped towards the sink afraid that something would pop out of it and arched his right arm ever so slightly and plunged the whisk into murky pink water. Bubbles began to form violently again.  
  
"This is some strong detergent."  
  
For a minute, the fizzing continued and abruptly subsided. With that as a good sign, Heero began to search for his elusive "pink" shirt and after rotating the whisk from side to side, he finally snagged it and lifted the whisk up along with the shirt. Right in front of him, a shower of pink drained away and revealed a white shirt. If anyone knew about his fiasco at the Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery, they wouldn't have known that it was the same shirt that he had worn on that day.  
  
After giving it a close inspection, he finally tossed the shirt in the washer along with his other laundry, and began his usual routine. Before he headed out for the day, he grabbed the laundry detergent bottle along with a cup of hot java that he had started to brew in a coffee maker from the night before.  
  
On his way to the embassy, Heero quickly made a brief stop at the bakery. When he steeped in, he saw Duo working at the counter.  
  
"It's.it's you from yesterday."  
  
"I just came here to order two dozen doughnuts and that's it."  
  
Duo obeyed and collected a variety of doughnuts. In a kind gesture, he decided to pay for the doughnuts himself in hopes of making amends with Heero from the previous day, even though Heero was his hat murderer. "Here, it's on the house. Compliments of Shinigami's and Chang's bakery." He then bagged the two pink boxes and handed it to Heero.  
  
With a look of confusion, Heero murmured a small thanks under his breath and left with the goodies. The bells chimed their usual sound as he headed out.  
  
As he saw Heero leave, he called out towards him, "I hope you didn't forget about the cake you ordered!"  
  
Heero peered through the window of the bakery and glanced towards Duo, affirming his response and then silently walked away.  
  
"That guy sure gives me the creeps, that stare of his, it's enough to give anyone the goose bumps." He then shuddered as he said that and looked towards both of his arms and noticed that tiny bumps were starting to appear.  
  
As Duo was looking toward his arms, a stranger appeared in the bakery, even though the bells didn't chime at all. "Um.excuse me sir." The person called out as he waited for a response from Duo. He then cleared his throat again and said in a louder voice, "A-hem! Excuse me, can you please help me?"  
  
With that, Duo looked up at a man holding a notebook in his hand.  
  
*****  
  
It was now 8:00 in the morning and everyone was already there at the embassy except for one person. Relena was already in her office, typing away as usual and she noticed it to. "I wonder where he could be?" She then looked through her personal phone book and found his number and was about to call when a blond haired boy interrupted her.  
  
"Morning, Relena. Isn't this a fine day?" His face shown a slight grin on it.  
  
"All right Quatre, what are you up to now?"  
  
His face just dropped. "You mean me? I greeted you with a good morning and this is how you treat me with a suspicious look. I just thought you might want to know about this."  
  
A newspaper was tossed to Relena. The headlines read, "Upcoming Gala at the Peacecraft Embassy Set for the Spring."  
  
"You mean the headlines. I already know about this and besides you already told me about it a month ago."  
  
"Not the headlines, turn to page 20 that talks about the city's briefs. Notice something."  
  
"No, not really. Quatre are you just wasting my time because if you're, I'm."  
  
Her eyes scanned toward a brief column, "Witnesses reported that during this week, one of Ms. Peacecraft's top security guards (unknown) was caught in a crossfire at the Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery for no apparent reason. No one was injured except that the bakery was left in a strawberry jam mess along with the security guard. Please see photo on the next page."  
  
"I'm waiting." replied Quatre as to what Relena was going to say to him.  
  
Relena ignored him and turned towards the next page in the newspaper and there it was. A 4x3 in photograph of Heero hailing a taxi in broad daylight with a couple of pedestrians looking on. Someone clearly made the effort to get a photo of Heero in the newspaper. She lashed out, "Do we know who took this?"  
  
"Not really, I've already called the editor of the local newspaper and he completely refused to answer any of my questions. So what are we going to do, if someone else starts writing a story like this?"  
  
"I think we should let Heero know about this, I think he deserves to know. Because knowing him, he might track down this so-called journalist and rip him to pieces. As for the public, we could say that he was just helping to prepare a meeting with Canadian diplomats, and that's why he was in the bakery. He was making food arrangements."  
  
*****  
  
Heero continued to walk down a street that led towards the embassy since he didn't want to take the risk of hailing a taxi and meeting the same driver from the previous night. He then noticed that from time to time, passer- bys began to snicker at him.  
  
He then passed a mother and a child, and the child said, "Mommy. Look it that's man in the picture from today."  
  
His mother then scolded at him, "You shouldn't stare at strangers. It's not polite." But then, she didn't heed her own warning and looked at Heero, "I think you might be right, honey. Come on let's go, before you attract attention." The two walked off and entered a pottery store filled with fancy expensive plates.  
  
"What's going on?" Heero surveyed the area around him and noticed that everyone was staring at him. He continued to walk towards the embassy with the bag in hand.  
  
Ten more minutes had passed and Heero was at the last leg of his journey, in which he was walking towards the back entrance of the embassy. Trowa was parked outside, reading the daily newspaper and looked up from the column about the "unknown security guard."  
  
"Morning."  
  
"Morning, Trowa. What are you reading?"  
  
"Just nothing. The usual such as the briefs and headlines."  
  
"Aren't the headlines on the front page?"  
  
Trowa looked back towards his newspaper and quickly changed the page showing a picture of Heero and his pink shirt. "I guess I might have wandered off a little. Everyone's wondering where have you been all throughout this morning."  
  
He looked up from his newspaper and noticed that Heero already had entered. "I guess he doesn't know what he's in for. Oh well..." He continued to read until he was needed.  
  
Inside the embassy, everything went quiet once Heero had stepped in. He continued to mind his usual business as he was making his way towards the staffs' lounge located on the first floor. He passed a couple of staff workers including the fifteen-year-old boy, who was reading the same exact newspaper that Trowa was reading. Heero had noticed the same page number that everyone was reading around him.  
  
"This is getting very strange." He gave everyone a cold stare to ward off any pondering my minds in their morning reading. Once that was done, everyone scampered back to their respective offices in running the embassy.  
  
He finally arrived at the staffs' lounge and to his amazement, he found Aidan there all to himself. He was waiting for his morning breakfast that consisted a doughnut from Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery and a small cup of black coffee. Right beside him, the same issue of the newspaper that everyone else was reading was next to him. "I've been waiting for a long time for my breakfast you know. So, what did you get this time? More strawberry jelly doughnuts or powdered ones?"  
  
"Quit, it Aidan. You'll get your turn. Since you're here, you might as well round up everyone else for their breakfast." He then laid out the 24 doughnuts on a platter, while Aidan shouted out in the hallway that Heero had finally come in their breakfasts. "That boy sure doesn't get the picture, does he?"  
  
Aidan then returned from his yelling and said to Heero, "You might want to look in today's issue of the newspaper, it has a great picture of you in it."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I think it has an excellent profile of you in it, that's all." He then slapped the newspaper in front of Heero.  
  
With that, Heero began to flip through the headlines and sports sections. He finally ended up in the city briefs and noticed something strange about it, the one column describing the bakery and the "incident" from yesterday. He noted one line, "Please see the next page."  
  
He then turned towards the next page and noticed that his photograph was there in vivid colors depicting his pink shirt that was covered in strawberry jam. At the same time, all the staff members were hanging around the door to see his reaction, and for a while, Heero stood there in shock as he face became expressionless and his hand clutched the paper viscously. "Who did this?" he said in a cold voice. He looked towards Aidan, who seemed to instigate everything and he was sweating profusely.  
  
"Don't look at me!! I was trying to break the shock to you." He saw Heero clenched the newspaper tighter in his hands and he immediately ran out of the room. "Someone help me, please!!"  
  
He ran out into the crowded hall, while a vengeance filled Heero tried to run after him but nearly collided into Relena in hopes of breaking the fight up.  
  
A shocked Relena exclaimed, "What on the earth are you trying to do, Heero?"  
  
"I was trying to get some sense into him. And why is there a picture of me in today's newspaper?"  
  
"You finally found out," she meekly said.  
  
He nodded in response with a stern gaze in his eyes. A sight that was different from her dream earlier this morning.  
  
"I was about to warn you, but I guess Aidan beat me to it. I don't know who took the picture and Quatre has tried talking to the editor in chief, but he keeps refusing to answer any of questions."  
  
"This would explain why everyone was giving me a "funny" look this morning when I was walking here."  
  
"Why didn't you call Trowa or hail a taxi?"  
  
"I didn't want to trouble any one."  
  
Silence then filled the area for a while. But Heero quickly changed the subject and talked about the laundry detergent that she had given me for some unknown reason. "I used your laundry detergent last night and it worked like a charm. I left the bottle in the staffs' lounge." The two continued to talk as they headed towards the lounge.  
  
Aidan looked on as the two walked away and he saw Riley just down the hallway, "Hey Riley," he called out to her.  
  
"What's going on? I just walked in here and I heard screaming coming from you."  
  
"You should take a look at this." He handed her the newspaper and showed the picture of Heero from his bakery run.  
  
"Oh my god. How's Heero taking the news?"  
  
"Not so well. He chased after me for showing him the paper."  
  
"It serves you right for opening your big mouth all the time." She then walked away from him before Aidan could apologize for his actions from the previous night.  
  
*****  
  
Back at the bakery, Duo was still staring at the unknown person before his eyes and felt something was terrible weird about him. "So what can I do for you?"  
  
"I'm a reporter from the local newspaper here. And I was just wondering what really occurred here on the previous day? I heard that one of Ms. Peacecraft's security detail was here on some business."  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
The reporter became agitated, "Look, have you seen today's newspaper yet?"  
  
"Not a chance. I've been working here since 7:00 this morning, while my so- called partner is somewhere in the kitchen working away on his share of the work."  
  
"Well, here." He showed a clipping of the column and then showed a picture of Heero drenched in strawberry jam as he was hailing a taxi in broad daylight.  
  
"Oh you mean him. Yeah, he came by here yesterday. He ordered a cake that's all I can say."  
  
"Do you know who it was for?"  
  
"I'm not at liberty to discuss anything to the public. Can't you mind your own business and leave us alone."  
  
Wufei then popped out from the kitchen, in which he was listening the conversation between Duo and the reporter ever since it began.  
  
"What's the problem here, Duo?"  
  
"This is a reporter from the local newspaper here and he wants to know what a customer ordered here yesterday."  
  
"Really, who do you think you are trying to barge into our business!"  
  
"Look, I'm just getting a couple of facts down. Can't either the two of you help me?" He even showed the same clipping that he had shown Duo earlier and Wufei then realized he was talking about the strawberry jam incident.  
  
"What will you do if we do leak out the information to you and your news company?"  
  
"You'll get good publicity from this, I swear."  
  
"Yeah right," the two scoffed in unison.  
  
"If you want anymore details, I'll give you this one. It was a birthday cake, and so can you leave us alone now. We need to get back to work. Fair enough?"  
  
"Fair enough. Do you mind if I can take a look around the premises for just a couple of minutes?"  
  
Wufei responded, "Help yourself. You just can't go to the back kitchen that's all."  
  
"Thanks." For a couple of minutes, the reporter snooped around the front area of the bakery, while the two bakers headed into the kitchen and peeked periodically through their kitchen window to see what he was doing.  
  
"Why did you do that Wufei? I thought you didn't want to disclose anything that our potential customers purchased here. Don't tell me that you're in it for the money?" He looked towards Wufei's expression on his face and noticed his eyes lighted up like Christmas lights with green dollar signs floating in the air somewhere. He waved his hand in front him and he didn't even receive a response from him. "All right, he's now in it for the fame and fortune." He shook his head, "I might as well start cleaning this bakery up because I think masses of people will eventually come here just to snoop."  
  
"You might as well."  
  
With that, Duo headed out to the front where the reporter was still looking around. Unknown to him, he had left one important sheet of information on a counter and somehow the reporter became very interested in the sheet of paper. "Did you find what you were looking for?"  
  
"Oh yes, yes indeed. Thanks for your cooperation."  
  
"No problem."  
  
The reporter then left with a grin on his face. "I'm going to blow this story right out into the opening."  
  
With the reporter gone, Duo began to clean the windows and counters as his cake was still baking in his oven until he heard a commotion in the kitchen.  
  
"Duo, you better get your butt in here!!" he screamed.  
  
A mass of yellow started to take shape as Duo walked in with his eyes bulging out of his sockets in shock.  
  
"My cake!!!"  
  
TBC  
  
*****  
  
How was that for chapter 10? I'll try to update as regularly as I can, but chemistry is really driving me crazy right now. All I can say is that more chaos is going to erupt and things are getting a little more complicated between Heero and Relena. Your comments are always greatly appreciated and stay tune for more upcoming chappies!!! Ciao for now. ^_^ 


	11. Whipped Cream

Hi everyone, thanks for waiting patiently and thanks again for your kind reviews. Anyhow, I finally have some vacation time to update. (YAY!!) Without further ado, here's chapter 11 and standard disclaimers go as usual. Hope you all enjoy it. :)  
  
*****  
  
Whipped Cream  
  
Duo looked on in horror as a semi-yellow mass began to take on the shape of the oven. The cake tin that he had placed an hour before was already lost in the sea of bubbling yellow.  
  
"I can see your having some troubles today," Wufei coolly said along with a smirk on his face. "Are you sure that you used the right ingredients? Because it looks like you didn't."  
  
"Are you implying that I sabotaged my own cake?! He's coming to pick this cake up in a matter of TWO days and I haven't even gotten a single layer of it completed yet!! These things take time and I suppose you don't want me to lose anymore of our customers."  
  
"Whatever...I think you should pay close attention to what you're doing." Wufei then left the kitchen and triumph was shown on his face. He pondered to himself for the moment, "This is going to be very interesting indeed. That fool doesn't know what hit him at all."  
  
Back in the kitchen, Duo immediately shut off his oven. Even with the oven off, the yellow mass still kept on growing for another half an hour.  
  
"What did I put in here? Something doesn't add up here." He took a cake knife out and sliced it through the spongy yellow mass. Everything looked normal and after deciding that it was edible, he took a corner off and popped into his mouth. He chewed for a couple of seconds, the vanilla flavor was apparent, and then it came. A bitter taste that he never tasted before sent a shock through his taste buds and in reflex action; he spat the foreign food out of his mouth and immediately ran to the sink for a cold glass of water. After guzzling down a couple of sips, he went back to the yellow cake.  
  
"All right, that's some weird cake. I don't ever recall that this cake had a bitter taste to it at all. I wonder..."  
  
He walked over to the stock room and noticed that hey had boxes of baking powder, but one box stood out from the rest, baking soda.  
  
"Could he have sabotaged my cake in the first place?"  
  
He toyed with the thought for a while and he decided that he was going to play detective for a while. "Detective Maxwell is now on the case," he called out loud. "I don't think Wufei is going to mind since he's so busy managing the front of the bakery right now. Where would he hide the incriminating evidence if he had any? Hm."  
  
He searched through Wufei's workstation table and noticed that it was spotless, not even the flour patterns were there anymore. He even searched through the cabinets that were situated at Wufei's side of the room and it revealed nothing, just alphabetized boxes of ingredients. "This is pointless, I'll never find." Right before him, in one of the hidden nooks and crannies of the kitchen, a smoking gun was finally revealed right before his sight, a plastic bag filled with a white powdery substance. "This is more like it."  
  
*****  
  
Back in the embassy, everything died down for the afternoon, even though Aidan was on pins and needles since Heero was watching him, trying to scare the living daylights out of him from the morning's news.  
  
Relena was quietly working in her office trying to control the media reports that kept coming in from Quatre, who was manning the switchboard of phone calls that kept calling on every hour and on the hour.  
  
"I don't think I can stand another ring from this machine. I'll be hearing ringing in my sleep all night."  
  
A ringing came to his attention.  
  
"Hello, this is the Peacecraft Embassy. How can we be of service today?"  
  
A female voice came on the other end, "I was just inquiry about the news article in today's paper. Was it true that a security guard from Relena's team at the Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery?"  
  
"I'm not at hand to disclose any information to the public. Ms. Peacecraft's orders, ma'am."  
  
"What was he doing then? A source of mine says that he was purchasing a birthday cake for Ms. Peacecraft?"  
  
"Whoever said that.um.is wrong. He was purchasing pastries for a meeting to be held with Ms. Peacecraft and fellow diplomats."  
  
"You sure about that. The same source has found a receipt describing his transaction at the bakery."  
  
"Look lady, I don't know who you should believe. Good day." He hung the phone up abruptly, leaving the woman on the other hand on the line.  
  
Relena stood by the door, looking him questioningly with her blue eyes. "Who was that, Quatre?"  
  
"Just another media reporter trying to get the scoop on Heero's business at the bakery."  
  
"I overheard her say something about a birthday cake for me, is it true?"  
  
"Um.um..you heard wrong. Heero was at the bakery for pastries remember."  
  
"I know that, but are you sure?"  
  
"For the last time, I'm sure."  
  
"All righty then, but I have another question. Are you planning a birthday party for me?"  
  
Quatre's face went to a stark white with sweat beats dotted his forehead. He then mustered his courage in hopes of not letting his plans slip right before him and he said in an affirmative tone, "No. You requested not to have one."  
  
She left the room with a weird feeling.  
  
"Phew, that was too close for comfort. I can't keep lying to her, she's going to find out sooner or later. It just kills me to lie to her every time. I wonder how Heero's dealing with this." He then slumped in his chair, in hopes of catching a few z's and within minutes he was asleep. A ring was then heard. "Not again."  
  
*****  
  
Somewhere across town, a woman slammed a black cordless phone down on her desk with papers littered everywhere. "I just can't stand this anymore. I mean I call and this is what the embassy treats me, I just give up." She threw her hands up in the air in frustration and swiped a pile of papers off her desk. Her long brown hair covering the corners of her face.  
  
"Looks like you didn't get really far into your scoop."  
  
"Oh, it's you. I was just on the embassy line for over half an hour just trying to get my answers to the questions. I even told them about your findings, but they totally denied it. Whoever was managing the phones lines was a jerk."  
  
"Oh well, I guess this is how the game is played. You should have been there when I was wheeling and dealing with the two bakers. They didn't even know I made a small note about a yellow receipt showing the guard's transaction at the bakery. It's true that they're going to get publicity, that's for sure."  
  
She bent down to the pick the papers that she had knocked off just a couple of minutes before, the man bent down and helped her pick them up. The papers dealt with their next article for their newspaper, in which it would blow Relena's secret surprise party out of the water, if they decide to print it out in the next issue, which was due out in a day or so.  
  
"It's getting late, we might as well head out for dinner tonight since we practically have nothing in the refrigerator except leftovers of meatloaf from the previous week." he said.  
  
"I guess you're right." She went over to him and grabbed the coat that he was holding in his hands. She felt a little disappointed about something and the man noticed it to.  
  
The two walked into the night, side by side.  
  
"Do you think we should continue with the article?" asked the woman.  
  
The man pondered on the response for a while as the two continued to stroll down a street. "Like I said before, we should. Who knows, there could be a secret love affair between the guard and Relena."  
  
"You mean like us."  
  
The man took her into his arms and held her close under the night sky. He then took a single red rose from the insides of his coat and handed it to her.  
  
"It's lovely. Thank you."  
  
"I guess it's time to get to the restaurant for our six month anniversary."  
  
"I thought you forgot about it."  
  
"How could I ever forget something important like this?"  
  
"I guess your right." She let out a soft sigh, letting a mist of her breath materializing in the cold air.  
  
The two entered an Italian restaurant with its lights dimly lighted and at each table, candles were glowing in the darken room.  
  
The couple had walked over to a table that was located in the corner of the restaurant. The soft candle glow reflected off the couple's eyes. "This is very romantic, Treize. How on earth did you have time to make the reservations without me knowing about them?"  
  
"I have some sources that pulled a couple of strings." He gave a wink to the manager of that was standing nearby in a tuxedo. Right then, a quartet of violins began to come up to their table and played music.  
  
*****  
  
Back at the Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery, Duo was still curiously examining the white substance, even though he had found it just four hours ago. Within the same time frame, he restarted Relena's birthday cake without Wufei knowing about it, just in case he was the one who sabotaged his cake in the first place. He toyed with the bag in his hands, "It looks like normal backing powder, but I wonder?"  
  
He scrambled around the kitchen for a muffin tin and after gathering all the correct ingredients this time, he decided to test his theory about the mysterious bag. After creating a miniature version of Relena's birthday cake minus the baking powder, he took a small amount of the yellow batter and added the unknown white substance until it was thoroughly mixed. Everything looked normal even the batter was still yellow and thick. He then placed a small ounce of it into one of the wells on the nonstick muffin tin.  
  
He then conducted a second test in which he used some of the original batter and added the same amount of baking powder to the mixture. "Everything is going right so far, so what did I do wrong then? Or did Wufei intervene?" He added the batter to another well on the muffin tin. He then wrapped up his test, by using baking soda in another mixture of the batter and added it into another well on the tin. After making sure that everything was in place, he placed the tin into a preheated oven set at 350 degrees.  
  
As his test was underway, he looked nervously at his watch just to help pass some time. He then heard the door squeaked and saw Wufei walk into the room.  
  
"What are you still doing here? Shouldn't you have left an hour ago?"  
  
"Yeah, but I'm just experimenting a new recipe of mine, that's all."  
  
"All right then, just don't try to burn down the bakery. Make sure you lock up before you head out."  
  
"Yeah.yeah.whatever. I know the routine. Good night."  
  
Wufei already had walked out when Duo called out his "good night," and right then, he looked towards his oven, two of the tins should an overflowing yellow bubbly mass.  
  
"Well, it's the baking soda then. Hmm. that Wufei is going to get an earful from me. Just wait and see, I'm going to get my revenge on him one day."  
  
Unaware to him, someone had sneaked in from the front door of the bakery and had entered the bakery. The intruder held a small metal object in his hands.  
  
*****  
  
The Grandfather clock in the lobby of the embassy now struck eight; most of the staff workers had already left for the night including Quatre, who couldn't stand the switchboard anymore because of the incessant questions coming from the press. But on the second floor, a light was still on.  
  
Inside the small room, Aidan was staring at a computer screen typing in some reports for Relena. He looked around to see if Heero was still around because he knew that Heero wanted to cream him for the morning's fiasco with the picture of his bakery run.  
  
"I better get out of here, when I still got the chance since his shift doesn't end until nine." He then placed a ZIP disk into his computer and made copies of the reports. "Come on, come on." After the green light on his computer went off, he ejected the disk and shut everything down for the night. He peeped out from his office door to see if he could find the stealthy security guard, but he was nowhere to be in sight. "The coast is clear."  
  
He darted through the hallway, making his way to the staff member's copy room, where Relena had a mailbox for late reports. He looked into the room and did a quick scan with his eyes, and after making sure that the room was safe to step into, he turned on the lights, and made his way to the mailbox.  
  
The mailbox was already full with disks and reports from various staff members. He tried squeezing his disk into the slot even though other disks and papers crowded around the entry. "I guess everyone else had the same idea that I had. Procrastinate until the very end." After shoving the disk into the slot, he finally managed to get it in, but then he looked towards his watch, and notice that it was already 8:50. This is not a good sign, I still have to make my way back to the office and.pass his post." He swallowed hard down his throat. "All right, Aidan, you can do it. When you just see him, run like hell." He went over to shut off the white fluorescent lights.  
  
Meanwhile somewhere off in another wing of the embassy, Relena was still working at her desk, signing forms and recording records on her computer. She asked herself a question, "I wonder what they're up to. Quatre has been very quiet lately, and it seems like Heero is involved in all of this. Maybe I'm just out of mind unless it has to deal with my birthday." She placed her head down on her office table in hopes of clearing her mind to concentrate on her reports.  
  
"Everything all right in here?" called a voice from the door.  
  
"Oh.it's you, Heero. I was just trying to finish my reports. Just give me five more minutes." She paused. "Um, Heero. I don't know if I heard this true or not, did you go to the bakery to purchase a birthday cake?"  
  
Heero's eyes widen a little, and he blurted out, "No."  
  
"All right then, I was just wondering."  
  
He looked towards her and saw pain in her eyes, but she didn't let him know about it. "Trowa is already waiting outside to take you home. I'll be staying here to finish some unfinished business."  
  
"I can only guess one person, Aidan."  
  
He nodded in response.  
  
"Well have fun then, but don't rattle him too much because his anxiety level is already too high for him. I'm leaving now, the reports can be finished tomorrow. Good night then."  
  
"Good night." He then left his post and walked with Relena to the limo, where Trowa was sitting in the driver's seat. He watched as the engine started and the limo then drove off into the night. "And now to put the plan into action."  
  
Inside the embassy, Aidan was making his way around in hopes of avoiding Heero. He crept behind corners and looked towards Heero's post. "Where is he? Maybe Relena left earlier and decided to leave. This bites, I could have been home by now, sleeping in my nice unmade bed."  
  
"Looking for me."  
  
"Huh.AHH!!" Aidan began to run down the hallway, as Heero kept taunting him.  
  
"Someone help me!! Mad security guard on the run."  
  
Heero then shouted, "It's no use Adian. No one is around right now except you and me."  
  
"There's gotta be someone around here."  
  
Right then, a slender hand from a room grabbed him. "What's going on? I hear you screaming 24-7."  
  
Aidan was gasping for air, "What did you that for Riley?"  
  
"I'm just trying to save your life."  
  
Aidan continued to gasp for air, "Heero..gasp.he's chasing me right now. He's trying to get his revenge from this morning."  
  
"Oh really." She then raised her voice, "Heero, he's in here."  
  
"No, don't do that." He then placed his right hand over her mouth, silencing her yells for Heero. "I don't want him to find me."  
  
She escaped from his grasp, "And why not? We'll see who win this game." She went over to her desk and pulled out something, a camera was in her hands.  
  
"Why do you have that in your hands?"  
  
"You'll see." A knock was heard on the door. "I'll go check to see who it is. Just wait right here." She looked out the door and Heero was there. She winked in response and headed back into the room, "The coast is clear right now, you better run out, while you still have the chance to escape."  
  
"Thanks Riley."  
  
"My pleasure."  
  
He headed out the door and right then, a barrage of whip cream came from the left side of him. "What!?!" A foaming sound was heard from a metal container as something cold hit his face.  
  
"And how does it feel like to be creamed for once, Aidan?" said Heero in his monotone voice.  
  
A flash of light came from Riley's room. "This should be a great picture."  
  
"Riley, you traitor. You told me that the coast was clear."  
  
"Oops, I guess I must have made a mistake."  
  
"Thanks for your help, Riley."  
  
"What?!? You were in on this the whole time. You're the mole!"  
  
"I was in on the gig from this morning. Heero filled me on your 'situation.' I couldn't refuse the offer at all." She held a smile on her face. "I guess we're even now ever since with the paper clip incident. And now, I could blackmail you, with this picture to the other staff members."  
  
"Don't tell me you have a digital camera in your hands."  
  
"Yep. As a matter of fact, the picture is right now being printed." She held up a glossy sheet of paper showing Aidan drenched with whip cream all over his face and hair. "I think it suits you well. Don't you think?"  
  
"Hah, hah. Laugh all you want."  
  
Heero stood to the corner of the room, taking in the amusement of Aidan's whip cream spraying all to himself.  
  
Aidan looked towards Heero's way and quipped, "I hope you're enjoying this at my own expense."  
  
"I am." He then left the room and headed out for the night.  
  
Riley stood in the room, laughing until her stomach began to hurt. "I can't help but say this one last remark. Would like a cherry with that?"  
  
"Very funny, Riley."  
  
"Here's a towell for you to wipe with." She handed him a small blue facial towel. Aidan took it questioningly and made a thorough inspection. "I didn't sabotage the towel you know. It's safe to use, you know."  
  
"I'm just checking it. I'm not going to trust you with anything anymore."  
  
"You didn't even say thank you."  
  
"Thank you for the towel."  
  
"You're welcome and Aidan, I think you missed a spot on your forehead."  
  
"Where?" He began to frantically wipe himself with the towel as Riley laughed even harder. "You're lying weren't you?"  
  
"Yep. You look cute like that."  
  
Silence then came between the couple for a while as they looked towards each other, wondering about their futures. Aidan then finally mustered up his courage to ask her something that he had been dying to say for the past couple of days, "Riley.is there still a chance for the two of us?"  
  
Again there was silence, as he waited for her response.  
  
*****  
  
Back at the bakery, the intruder crept even closer towards Duo as he was washing his muffin tin at the sink filled with water. He was mumbling to himself about his next plan on Wufei and he noticed that he had dropped one of his measuring cups on the flour. He bent down to pick it up, while the intruder stealthily hid behind his table. After waiting for a couple of minutes, he went right towards Duo. Right then, Duo felt something at his back.  
  
TBC  
  
*****  
  
How was that for chapter 11? Honestly, I need to know, please with sugar on top. (Gives a puppy dog look.) I know I left so many cliffhangers in this one. I think everything is going to come full circle soon, even though in my first chapter I said that this was going to be a short fic. (Sorry about that.) As for chapter lengths, they might begin to vary at times depending on how much free time I have. I just have another month of school left before I'm officially on summer break. If I do update irregularly, just check on my biography page to see a timeline of updates and progress on my other fics. Thanks again, until next time! ^-^ 


	12. Flour Reprisals

Hi everyone, thanks again for the kind reviews. I'm really glad that everyone is enjoying this fic and there's a couple of surprises in store in this chapter. ^^ Disclaimers go as usual. ENJOY!!  
  
*****  
Flour Reprisals  
  
Duo stood in silence as he felt the object dig deeper into his back. He immediately dropped the muffin tin into the sink.  
  
A muffled voice said, "I wouldn't move if I were you."  
  
"Well you know what, if you were trying to rob this bakery, there's nothing for you to rob." Right then, he quickly spun around, while the intruder was caught off guard, but managed to keep her balance between the quick exchange. "You picked the wrong person to rob tonight."  
  
"You sure about that? I think I came to the right place. I mean after all, it seems like you always close for the night." At this point, Duo was a little confused by what his assailant was talking about. She then dove right at him, and knocking him towards the ground. By that time, Duo was in a daze with cupcakes dancing around his head. "Remember me now?" A flash of silver was seen in her hands, as he continued to look up at his visitor.  
  
"Huh.I'm." He then felt the back of his head and then realized whom he was talking to. "Hilde!!.You were the one doing this. Why are you holding a metal spatula in your hands?"  
  
"I was just trying to get your attention. Looks like I nearly scared you to death just a couple of minutes ago."  
  
"But.how did you."  
  
"I came through the front door since you didn't lock it yet. I think you were supposed to meet me somewhere today." She started to tap her foot on the floor in slight agitation.  
  
"What do you mean?" He pondered on the thought for a while and then it occurred to him, "I'm so sorry that I forgot our date! I knew I forgot something. I was so caught up in my cake dilemma for Ms. Relena Peacecraft. Honestly."  
  
"Always excuses, excuses. You totally forgot." She began to walk away from him.  
  
He quickly ran towards her and caught her arm, "I'm sorry babe, honestly, I'm very, VERY sorry."  
  
She ignored him for a couple of minutes as Duo was trying to win her heart back along with trying to reschedule their date. He then got down on his knees and begged for forgiveness. "Please..please can you give me a second chance.PLEASE!!"  
  
She looked down on him, "Well.on one condition."  
  
"Name it."  
  
She looked towards the ceiling to avert her sight from Duo, in hopes of making him become more nervous as he waited for her demands. "You'll give me a week's worth of powdered doughnuts and your unconditional love."  
  
He then got up and kissed her. "Let's get out of this dump." With that, he locked up and walked with her towards her apartment. "I think I should make up some lost time."  
  
"I'll see about that."  
  
Duo had a little confused look on his face. He was right about to enter her apartment and before he knew it, he walked right into the door. "What is this for?"  
  
Hilde called from the other side, "I think we should have a little time out."  
  
Duo's heart was crushed, "But, don't you think we should be together tonight?"  
  
"I'll see you tomorrow and besides one little night being apart won't kill you? Will it?"  
  
"I guess not." He walked back to his bachelor pad for the night, feeling heart broken. "That Wufei is really going to get it now for making me miss my date with Hilde." For the night, he devised some type of plan that would involve the usual ingredient, flour.  
  
*****  
  
Another day began again, and Duo was already at the bakery devising his ultimate plan against Wufei for sabotaging his cake. He was at the front counters waiting for potential customers to enter, "Let's see.I can start the usual flour fight and end it with a bang. Hmmm, that could be interesting. But that is so old-school and I even thought about last night."  
  
"And what are you up to Maxwell on this fine morning?"  
  
"Hi Wufei. I was just minding my own business LIKE I'm supposed to."  
  
"Very well then, I can see you didn't burn down the bakery. So how did your new recipe turn out?"  
  
"None of your business. Top secret. I'm taking it with me to the grave." He then left abruptly to get away from his saboteur.  
  
Wufei was left with a giddy feeling, "I wonder if he knows." He shrugged to himself and went on the day as usual.  
  
*****  
  
Laughter abruptly filled the hallways of the embassy as staff members trickled in through the lounge and saw a picture of Aidan with whip cream from the previous night.  
  
The fifteen-year-old boy called out, "Hey Aidan, I think this is a nice profile of you."  
  
"Very funny." He had his arms folded across his chest.  
  
Relena then walked in and noticed the alarming picture on her bulletin board. "Oh dear, I didn't think Heero would go that far." she whispered to herself. "But on the other hand, it should keep Aidan in his place." She chuckled quietly to herself, while Aidan looked towards her. She felt a cold stare like Heero's coming over her shoulder. "Hi Aidan," she said meekly. "Looks like you finally got a taste of your own medicine. Cheer up."  
  
"Cheer up?!? How can I cheer up? Heero and Riley are making a mockery out of me!"  
  
"I didn't know that Riley was in on this. Oh well, as least she finally got you on something."  
  
"Whatever." He then headed out towards the hallway, where Heero was located in. "It's you again."  
  
"Well good morning to you to."  
  
"Same to you. I hope you enjoyed your night's sleep."  
  
He nodded in response and then mysteriously disappeared before Aidan could question him further.  
  
"It figures for him to disappear just in an instant." He was thinking about last night's events with Riley in her office. He was still waiting a response from her. Right then, Quatre walked right up to him.  
  
"I see you have a nice profile of you in the staff's lounge." He looked at Aidan, but he seemed to ignore him. "What's the matter?"  
  
"I'm having relationship problems."  
  
"I see and I think I might know who you're referring to. What did you do to make her mad at you this time?"  
  
"I was just asking her.never mind."  
  
"You asked her."  
  
"All right, I give up, I might as well spill the beans, since I've been racking my brain on this dilemma all night long. I asked her if we still had a chance, but she didn't give me any response."  
  
Quatre gave him an appalled look after his revelation, "I'm not really good with any of these matters, but my best bet is tell her your true feelings." Aidan looked on in despair since he already tried doing that just last night. "I guess that didn't work for you." He then let out a sigh and said, "Just give her time, she'll come around."  
  
"Thanks, Quatre."  
  
With that, Quatre walked away and began his day, not manning the switchboard this time.  
  
*****  
  
Across town, Treize and Lady Une sat in their office planning their next move on their latest hot topic, which was the mysterious birthday cake for Ms. Relena Peacecraft.  
  
"When do you think we should bring the story out?" asked Treize, who was fumbling a pen in his hand.  
  
Lady pondered on the thought and flipped through her mini calendar that was on her desk, "Lets see.Ms. Peacecraft's birthday is coming up.tomorrow. When is the cake supposed to be picked up?"  
  
Treize reached into his own desk and pulled out a yellow piece of legal paper and read the date. Frustration was seen in his eyes, "It's supposed to picked up today."  
  
"I guess we better get a move on it, since our printing presses will be working all day then."  
  
"It sounds fine with me, we'll have the story out on her birthday. This will be a tight deadline then. All right then, have our reporters on the look out if this mystery bodyguard appears at the bakery again. I want this to become headline news for sure."  
  
"I'll have our undercover reporters on the job right now." She began speed dialing the staff on her black phone. Within minutes, vans were deployed from the building to their respective sights, the bakery and the embassy. "Let Operation Sweet Cake begin," replied one of the reporters in the van.  
  
*****  
  
Duo was running against the clock now since Heero was scheduled to pick up the cake later on during the day. He was squeezing his pastry bag that was filled with red icing. "Some design that Mr. Yuy had to pick out, three main roses at the lower top of the cake. I don't think my hand can stand this torture anymore." After completing the first of the roses, his hand looked red because of all the pressure from squeezing his small pastry bag. "Concentrate, Duo, you don't want to screw this cake up, not when its about finished with the decorating."  
  
He squeezed the tube again and red icing was taking in the shape of rose bud, just when Wufei decided to scare him to death. "Hey partner, looks like your finally hard at work." He then patted him on the back with a spatula to get his attention.  
  
The red icing missed its mark on the white surface. "Ahhh!! Look what you made me do. There's one demented rose bud on the cake right now."  
  
Wufei loved torturing Duo at these critical cake-decorating moments, "I'm sorry did I do that.would you like me to go away or should I pester you more?"  
  
"I think you should distance yourself right now because I'm in no mood for jokes right now."  
  
"Touchy.touchy."  
  
"If you're picking a fight right now, now is not the time." Duo looked away from his masterpiece for a second and looked around the room to see where Wufei had run off. "All right, lets get on with this third rose." More of the red icing filtered slowing through the pastry bag until it was empty. "Oh, don't do this to me now. Come on, come on." He tried coaxing his pastry bag into letting out more of the red sugary frosting, but then he lightly banged it on the kitchen counter in hopes of jarring the clog that had formed in the tube. With that, more of red icing trickled out, "Thank you." He wiped his forehead from all of the pressure he was facing and he noticed that someone was coming up to him from behind again. "I wouldn't dare to that if I were you, Chang." He grabbed the pastry bag that was filled with green icing and squirted Wufei in the face. "This is just only the beginning, mark my words."  
  
"Why you." He tried wiping the green off his face, but the icing began to harden slightly.  
  
"I know you sabotaged my cake, but mark my words, there's more to come. Now if you would excuse me, I've got better things to do." Duo continued on with Relena's birthday cake adding the final touches to it minus the calligraphy that he'll have to write on the cake with another pastry bag filled with blue icing. "This is going to take me all afternoon, if I keep up this snail pace in decorating. I might as well stop right here and prepare Hilde's powdered doughnuts." He took his beloved masterpiece and locked it in his refrigerator that was next to Wufei's. At the same time, he took out a padlock from his pocket and locked the refrigerator entirely. "This should keep that rat out of my stuff for a while."  
  
"What are you doing that for?" asked Wufei who still had a slight green tint on his face from the squirting incident.  
  
"I'm just keeping you out of trouble." He pushed Wufei off to the side and as he walked away, "I wouldn't dare touching the refrigerator because if you do, an alarm system will ring."  
  
"You even installed an alarm system on your refrigerator," called out Wufei in shock.  
  
"I'm not leaving anything to chance while you're around. And besides, this will keep you out of trouble for a while. I think you might want to help some of our customers that are waiting patiently for you such as.Sally."  
  
"What? I thought she usually comes here occasionally." Wufei hurried quickly out of the kitchen and into the main part of the bakery, "I don't see her." He then realized that Duo was playing a psychological game on him for part of his plan. He then mumbled to himself, "Arrghh, that Maxwell." A lady then stepped up to the counter for some service and with that, Wufei gave a fake smile. For the next two hours, he was standing at the counter, collecting orders.  
  
*****  
  
In the embassy, Quatre was nervous again because of his plan for Relena's secret surprise party. He peeped into her office and found her, working studiously among a stack of papers that should keep her busy for a while. With that, he walked towards Heero's post, but couldn't find him anywhere. "Where's is he when you need him?" He continued to walk down a hallway that overlooked the courtyard and found him standing near a window. "For a person like you, you're hard to track down, you know that?"  
  
Heero acknowledged Quatre's presence. He continued to look out of the window as his eyesight was focusing on someone taking snapshots of the embassy. "I think we have a reporter lose on the premise."  
  
Quatre looked out the window along with him and saw the reporter. "I don't recall anything about having anyone taking snapshots of the embassy. It looks like he's leaving right now."  
  
"Supposedly."  
  
"Hey, when are you supposed to pick up Relena's birthday cake?"  
  
"Today."  
  
"That's great. Everything will be in place then. You won't mind holding on the cake until tomorrow? I figure if we put in the staff's lounge, the whole plan will be in ruins."  
  
"I'm heading back to my post. The cake is supposed to be picked up sometime around five."  
  
"Thanks, Heero." Quatre continued finalizing the secret surprise party for the rest of the day making sure that the staff members knew what to bring and what to say in case Relena questioned about their suspicious activities.  
  
Outside of the embassy, the renegade reporter positioned himself in one of the bushes by the back driveway, "Cupcake in position," whispered a voice in a walkie-talkie.  
  
"Roger that," replied a member of the news staff that were situated in a van across the street.  
  
A blip was heard on the radio of the van, "Who thought of these names anyway, I feel so stupid."  
  
"Just shut up and get the pictures when the guard comes out. I suppose you recognize him through our first picture on him."  
  
"I know." The radio went silent as everyone waited for the big event to occur.  
  
*****  
  
Back in Treize's and Lady Une's office, all hell broke lose as everyone was preparing for their assignments. Stress levels were on the rise as copy editors were running wildly throughout the office with possible layouts for their morning edition. Interns were following their respective editors around the building with coffee mugs in their hands along with manila folders filled with background information on the bakery.  
  
"I've just received confirmation that cupcake #1 is in position for the first appearance of the security guard," replied Lady Une from her desk.  
  
"Good. Is any of our scouts at the bakery yet?"  
  
"Not just yet."  
  
"Well tell them to get a move on it. We don't want our story to be ruined now." He stormed out of the office and headed straight to the copying room, where a rough copy of the layout for their morning edition was being prepared.  
  
Meanwhile, a white van pulled up to a side street and two reporters quickly emerged from the vehicle. One situated himself in a local café that was located in front the bakery, while another waited by a newsstand. "We're in position now."  
  
"Good. You know what Treize wants and as soon as the security guard leaves the bakery, come back to the office with your pictures."  
  
*****  
  
Duo finished a batch of powdered doughnuts just when Hilde stepped inside with a bag. "Hey babe, I missed you last night." He was standing behind the counter with a pink box in his hands.  
  
"I missed you too." She went up to him and gave him a light kiss on his check. "I see that you kept your end of the bargain up."  
  
"Yep."  
  
"So how is your cake going?"  
  
"Just fine, just fine. At least, Wufei hasn't sabotaged it again, but my hands are all cramped up from squeezing the pastry bags too much. And look, they're even stained in multiple colors." He lifted his right hand, to reveal hues of blending: red, green, and blue.  
  
"Is he still giving you a hard time?"  
  
"This might cheer you up." She held out the bag and gave it to Duo.  
  
He peeped inside and noticed something white about it. "It's a new chef's hat." His eyes were twinkling. "Thanks."  
  
"I told you that I would get you a new hat. So where's Wufei right now?"  
  
"Probably devising a devious plan to get his revenge on me again, but lets just say that after today, I'll even the score."  
  
"What do you mean that you'll even the score?"  
  
"You'll find out if you stay long enough."  
  
"I think that might be my cue to leave right now. I'll see you later, well hopefully." She left with the pink box in her hands and a smile on her face.  
  
"Later." After a few minutes of contemplating to himself, he prepared himself for his plan by gathering his necessary items: flour, pastry bags, and his boom box. He then placed Hilde's new chef's hat on.  
  
*****  
  
The clock had struck four in the afternoon; the chimes were clearly ringing throughout the lobby and the hallways. Heero was now at his post trying to figure a way of escaping from Relena's curious eyesight. He didn't want her to become too suspicious of his actions, since he already knew she began to question the rest of her staff members. He walked into her office, "I'm leaving now."  
  
"It's not even nine yet."  
  
"I know, but I made plans for the night."  
  
"Oh, I see." Relena was saddened by that thought.  
  
"I arranged for Trowa to stay with you for the remainder of my shift, if that's fine with you."  
  
She gave him a fake smile, "It's no problem at all. Good night then."  
  
"Good night."  
  
Heero looked at his watch as he made his way through the maze of hallways as he finally made his way to the back entrance of the embassy. "It's no turning back for me." With that he took his first step out of the door and didn't notice anything peculiar. But he did hear something from the bushes, the sound of a film advancing in a camera.  
  
TBC *****  
  
How was this for chapter 12? So what is Duo's plan with all of the bakery ingredients? Find out in the next chapter, until then ciao!! ^_^ 


	13. The Stage is Set

Hi everyone, sorry about these erratic updates, I just have one more week left before I'm officially off for the summer, in which I must finish writing a term paper for English and study for my chemistry final. Sorry if this chapter might be shorter than usual, I'm doing my best. ^^ Anyhow, hope you all enjoy this and disclaimers goes as usual.  
  
******  
  
The Stage is Set  
  
Heero continued to walk down a couple of side streets that lead to the bakery. He noticed that the same models of white vans weren't too far from the bakery. "This is getting strange." He gave a cold piercing look ahead of him, as he noticed two reporters making their way around the bakery.  
  
"Are you in position yet?" yelled one of the van drivers.  
  
"Just about ready, I think I see our subject coming down the street." A reporter peeps his head above the newspaper that he's reading from a local café. "I think he spotted us. He's giving me a cold death glare. Do you know if he carries a gun on him whenever he walks out in public?"  
  
"Stay in position. Treize won't like this, if we botch up our scoop right now."  
  
"Whatever you say, but if he's coming my way with some deadly object, I'm running the hell out of here. I don't care what Treize or Lady Une might think of me."  
  
"Whatever, just keep your wits."  
  
"Easy for you to say, you're in a van." The walkie-talkie went silent with static in the background. Sounds of rapid breathing began.  
  
"I guess cupcake #1 is within hearing distance of our subject. It's time to be patient."  
  
Heero looked over towards the reporter that tried to remain inconspicuous from his sight, but Heero knew that something was going to happen. He realized that it was the same photographer that he saw in the courtyard of the embassy. "This is going to get interesting," he pondered to himself. He decided to reach for his back pocket, and all of a sudden, he saw the person's eyes immediately began to widen and that sweat beads were dotting his forehead.  
  
The reporter had these thoughts running through his head, "Oh no, HE'S going to shoot me. I better get out of this place, before he kills me for sure." With that, he immediately got up from his seat and ran the other way, opposite from Heero's line of sight with a trail of dust and leaves trailing behind him.  
  
"I wonder what did I do to spook him." He continued to reach his back pocket and finally pulled out the white receipt from his black wallet. With that, he was just two blocks away from Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery. Again, he noticed that more reporters were strangely clustered near the bakery and they all had fear in their eyes, after seeing one of their colleagues run like a wild chicken down the avenue.  
  
******  
  
Back in the embassy, Relena had a pensive look on her face as she was trying to figure why Heero left so early during the afternoon. "Why would Heero leave so early and have Trowa take me home? Normally, Heero would literally escort me home until I was inside my own home." She reached for telephone consult and paged Quatre, who was in a nearby room, making the final preparations for Relena's surprise birthday party.  
  
Quatre saw a red blinking light from the corner of his eye, "I wonder what she wants now." He pushed a button down and on the receiver, Relena's voice was heard, "Quatre, do you know why Heero had to leave abruptly this afternoon? Is everything all right with him?"  
  
Quatre had to be quick on his feet, since he knew that he was the last line of defense in revealing Heero's true mission. "Well.um." he began to loosen the knot in his tie, "he told me he had some family emergency to attend to, I think it was for his sister."  
  
"That's funny, he never told me he had any family near here. You sure about that, I don't ever recall that he has a sister?" Relena had flashes of their last conversation, in which Heero said that he had made plans for the night. She started to fidget with a pen in her hand, as she was continuing to listen to Quatre.  
  
By this time, Quatre had found a hard time in concealing the truth from Relena, "Maybe I heard him wrong. You know how he always says things in his monotone voice all the time, right?"  
  
There was a pause on the receiver, "I guess your right, but something doesn't make sense." She then said in a harsher voice, "Quatre, are you hiding something from me?" With that, she picked up her office phone and steadily walked over towards Quatre's office. to find him frantically shuffling papers inside his file cabinets. "Hello, Quatre."  
  
"Ahhh! Don't you ever sneak up on me like that again."  
  
"For the last time, do you know Heero's true whereabouts?"  
  
Sweat beads dotted the blond boy's forehead, as Relena gave him a stern and questioning look at him with a slight foot tap in agitation.  
  
******  
  
Within the bakery, Duo was making the final last adjustments to his ultimate plan against Wufei. He somehow had managed to booby trap the bakery with all sorts of contraptions that would fire icing, sugar, and chocolate syrup. On his workstation table, he setup spoons along the metallic surface and slanted them slightly. He then leveled each one with small batches of flour. "With one pull on this string, a barrage of flour will hit him. Hehehehe. Once you mess with the God of Death, there's no turning back." He then let out an evil cackle.  
  
He then ran to the other side of the kitchen, where the doors were rigged with buckets of chocolate syrup hanging from the apex of the doors. He made sure that the string wasn't too slack, otherwise his whole plan would be ruined. After fastening a couple of more knots, he placed a small handheld fan on Wufei's table and along side the fan, a bag of feathers that he had managed to store in the kitchen without Wufei's knowing.  
  
With everything in place, Duo went back to the front of the bakery and pulled out his boom box. He placed a cassette tap in it and fast-forwarded the tape to the song, "Ride of the Valkaries," and looked underneath the counter, where he had placed his Viking helmet. "T minus to 15 minutes before the final war occurs within this bakery. Hopefully that Mr. Yuy will come buy and pick up the cake before the warfare begins." He looked at the white clock on the wall and noticed that it was getting close before Wufei would be back from his shopping errands. "This is going to get close for everyone."  
  
To keep his mind focused, he went back to the kitchen and disarmed his refrigerator of the various protection systems that he placed onto it. He then grabbed the steel arm of the refrigerator and a swoosh of cold air was felt against his face, but before him was his beautiful masterpiece, Relena's birthday cake. "Thank goodness, it's still in one piece." With that, Duo locked up the refrigerator again and looked around the kitchen to make sure he didn't trigger one of the traps that was meant for Wufei. He then went back to his workstation table, and picked up several icing tubes and secretly hid them in his apron's pockets.  
  
Right then, the usual jingle of the bells was heard from the front and a Persian eyed man stepped in. "Time for business."  
  
*****  
  
Back in the embassy, a scream was heard, "He did what?!?!"  
  
*****  
  
So how was that for chapter 13? Will Heero leave the bakery in time before chaos erupts one last time within Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery? Will Treize and Lady Une get their scoop? Or will there be a strange twist of events? Let me know what you think, I always appreciate your comments. ^_^ Until next time!!! 


	14. Icing Frenzy

Hi everyone, I'm finally on my vacation!! Thanks for the reviews and without further ado, here's chapter 14. Hope you all like it and disclaimers go as usual. ^_^  
  
*****  
  
Icing Frenzy  
  
It was five minutes 'til five when Heero finally entered the bakery.  
  
"You're sure cutting it close."   
  
Heero stood in silence as Duo kept a curious eye on the clock. "You know what I'm here for."  
  
"Let me just go grab the cake now. Just wait right here." Duo had a nervous look on his face, acting as if he was guilty of a crime. "All right, Duo, stay calm...you still have at least three minutes or more...well maybe." He was sidestepping his traps that he had setup just thirty minutes before and within a minute, he was at his locked refrigerator, where Relena's cake was heavily guarded. After unlocking the various locks and security system that he had personally installed, he lifted his frozen masterpiece and gently placed it in a white box. "Come on Duo...come on..." he looked at his watch and it was now five. "This is going to be interesting."  
  
Back outside, Heero waited patiently for Duo to reappear with the cake. As he was waiting, he noticed something move out of the corner of his eye within the bushes. "That's funny." He continued to look in the direction of the bush, but whatever was there, was now gone. Heero called out, "Hey you back there, are you finish yet?"  
  
Duo responded, "In a minute." He then muttered to himself, "Who does he think he is? These cakes are delicate." He finished adding the final touches to the cake by adding small green petals of icing, "I'm coming out now." With that, Duo did his dance of dodging the various traps meant for Wufei until one of the corners of the box snagged the string leading the to the trap set for the flour barrage. "Uh ohh...this is not good."  
  
Both of his hands were supporting the bottom of the box, in which he then resorted to moving backwards in hopes that the string would slip off. With his steady hands, he took several steps backwards, but the string continued to hang on. "All right, this is not good at all. Not a good sign at all." He thought to himself about moving a step forward, but he knew that would leave him looking more like a powdered doughnut. "Should I call him or not? He might even get hit with something. This is a chance that I have to take." He cleared his throat, "Um...Mr. Yuy...could you come in here...I'm kind of stuck right now."  
  
Heero heard the awkward request, he replied in his monotone voice. "All right then..."  
  
"Before you come in, I suggest that you don't push the first kitchen door too far because I rigged the door with a trap. And once you step in, I advise you to look around for various strings..."  
  
Within Heero, he knew something was terribly wrong.  
  
*****  
  
Relena had ordered Trowa to take to Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery, since Quatre finally slipped out Heero's position. The drive seemed to be endless, but along the way, Quatre begged her to have Trowa to drive them all back to the embassy. Relena refused his pleas and was determined to get to the bottom of Heero's true mission.  
  
"Why on earth, would he go to the bakery so late in the day? I'm just analyzing this too much or am I just going crazy?"  
  
Quatre replied, "I think you need a vacation."  
  
"Oh quit it, Quatre. If it weren't for you, Heero wouldn't be in this predicament in the first place. I guess...it's time for you to face your fear of the bakery." She gave him a wink, while Quatre cringed at the thought of the "mad baker" and his cohort.  
  
"I have a feeling that I'm going to get targeted for no apparent reason."  
  
Trowa then called out to the two from the driver's seat, "We're just two blocks away from the bakery, what should we do then?"  
  
Relena then replied, "Let's park the car here, just in case some "snoopy" reporter is around."  
  
"Wouldn't this be a bad idea? What happens if we need to make a quick getaway?" asked Quatre, who was already getting nervous.  
  
"I'll just park this car myself then, if you two can't decide."  
  
"All right then, you'll park the car, while Quatre and I will look for Heero." replied Relena. She began to look out the window to find a inconspicuous spot for Quatre and her to get off. "How about that intersection right there, right by the café?"  
  
"Fine with me," responded Trowa.  
  
*****  
  
"Anything happening yet?"  
  
"Not really, all we know is that our subject is now in the bakery."  
  
"Is there anything really going on?"  
  
"Wait a minute, someone is approaching the bakery..." An assistant in one of the white vans fingered in the back of the vehicle for a pair of binoculars, "Found it." She then scooted over to one of the windows and looked towards the direction of the bakery, but the sidewalks were now empty. "I could have sworn that a couple was walking over there." A perplexing look was seen on her face.  
  
A voice over the walkie-talkie was heard again, "Maybe it was just your imagination, with Treize commanding us 24/7, we'll become crazy at any given point."  
  
"I think something is about to happen. You should send someone close to the window of the bakery."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Woman's intuition, that's why."  
  
*****  
  
Back in the bakery, Heero gently pushed the door aside and when he looked up, he saw a red bucket filled with a dark-colored substance. He nodded in disbelief as memories of him being bombarded with chocolate chip cookies and strawberry jam came flooding back. He looked towards Duo, who was standing still by his workstation table, holding a box in his hands.  
  
"Why are you standing like that?" Heero then noticed that a corner of the box was snagged on a small translucent string. "One question...why are you rigging the entire kitchen with traps?"  
  
"Let's just say that my partner went a little too far with his antics, and I'm just getting a little payback." By the time Duo was finished with his statement and he closely watched one of the spoons that was ready to launch the flour. "Um...I think you want to be careful because that spoon is ready to aim at us."   
  
"Shh." Within minutes, Heero managed to cut the box loose, without triggering the rows of spoons that were ready to launch the flour at their targets.   
  
"Thanks...that was a close one."  
  
The two stepped out into the main lobby of the bakery, with Duo still holding the box in his hands. "How much do I owe you for this cake?"  
  
"It'll be $21.00."  
  
With that, Heero paid Duo and picked the white box up into his hands, and left the bakery. Once he stepped out into the spring night air, he still noticed that a white van was parked in the same spot. He decided to walk a little further down the street and as he turned around the corner, he noticed a pair of binoculars was present at the front windshield. He continued to take a couple of steps before a nagging feeling sent an impulse to his brain to go back to the bakery.   
  
*****  
  
Relena and Quatre were just a block away from the bakery and both of them noticed, a couple staring at them from the café just right across the street. "Do you think they're the reporters after Heero?" asked Relena.  
  
"It could be. I think we should continue walking, before we both attract more attention to their story."  
  
With that, the two continued down the street as they saw someone enter the bakery with boxes of bakery ingredients.  
  
"I have a feeling that something isn't right...I think we should go back right now."  
  
"You've already said that before, Quatre, and I don't see why we can't go to the bakery and see for ourselves."  
  
"Like I said, Heero was at the bakery. Case close."  
  
"But, I didn't send him on any bakery run for the afternoon."  
  
"Well...I have a confession to make...I sent him for cookies for the staff. I just thought it would be a nice treat."  
  
"A nice treat, Heero could have gone to the supermarket for cookies. If that was the case, I think..."   
  
By this time, Quatre had quick hopes that Relena would change her mind, and that the two wouldn't have to go to the bakery at all. "Please let her change her mind, please..."  
  
"Well, since we're here now, I might as well see this bakery for myself then."  
  
Quatre's face then dropped, "Nooo..." he kicked a small pebble on the sidewalk. "So, much for my wishes.... all right then, don't say that I didn't warn you."  
  
As the two were continuing down the street, the reporters that were clustered around the café, all noticed that it was Ms. Peacecraft herself that was walking down the street.  
  
"What is she doing here?" asked one of the reporters sitting with a newspaper in hand.  
  
"Beats me. Oh well, Treize and Une will get their story on the front page for sure. Does everyone have their cameras ready for some close-ups?"   
  
Sounds of cameras advancing their films could be heard all around.  
  
*****  
  
"Duo, I'm back with the bakery ingredients," Wufei called out from the lobby. "Duo?" He thought to himself, "I guess he's up to no good again. It seems like I'm always stuck with these ingredients. Something doesn't look right." He scanned the bakery for anything that was out of place, but everything was in order. He shrugged his shoulders and picked up the boxes. With that, he went through the first kitchen door.  
  
"What the ..." before he could finish his sentence, a cascade of chocolate rained from the red bucket and right on to Wufei. "Maxwell!!! I'm going to get you for this." He tried regaining his stance, but kept slipping on the chocolate glazed floor.  
  
In front of Wufei, Duo placed a Viking helmet on his head and began to play the "Ride of the Valkyries." "It's time for some serious payback!" He then pulled out his pastry bags that were filled with the icing and directly aimed it at Wufei. Colors of red, blue, and green blended on Wufei's face and shirt. By this time, Wufei looked more like a sherbet colored ice cream.   
  
Wufei finally regained his balance and went directly to the kitchen pantry and pulled out a jar of strawberry jam and began to grab handfuls and threw it at Duo. "Miss me! Man, Wufei, you throw like a girl."  
  
"Why you smart aleck. Come and fight me, man to man."  
  
"No way!!" The two continued to run around the kitchen as the music blared through Duo's boombox with the drums bashing in the background. Duo lead Wufei to his first set of traps that included the flour barrage from the teaspoons and tablespoons. A sea of white engulfed the area, as Wufei emerged with flour clinging to his entire body.  
  
"Maxwell!!!" Unknown to Wufei, Duo was leading him to his ultimate plan, which involved the bag of feathers.   
  
Duo was standing close to the doorframe, "I wouldn't get to close, if I were you." He pointed his finger up, and as Wufei got distracted, another batch of chocolate rained down on him and within minutes, Duo pulled the string that initiated the fan to blow feathers at Wufei. "Now this is my ultimate payback for messing my cake in the first place."  
  
Wufei stood in the kitchen, dumbfounded for a minute, since feathers were still floating about his head. He was about to speak but feathers came out of his mouth. After coughing out small feathers, "It isn't over yet." He chuckled to himself evilly and Duo noticed that fire burned in his eyes.  
  
Duo immediately began to run in the other direction as Wufei gathered one of the pastry bags that Duo had dropped before. "I'll get you for this!" The two started an icing tag game with flour blasts occurring left and right in the bakery's kitchen, but the two didn't hear their chiming of the bells.  
  
Outside in the front lobby, Relena and Quatre had already entered the bakery, but they couldn't hear what was going on in the kitchen.  
  
"Why is it so quiet in here, Quatre?"  
  
"Don't look at me...I'm leaving now."  
  
"No you won't (she pulled him on his collar)...you're going to stay here and face up to your fears." She looked away from him and cleared her throat, "Is anyone in here?"  
  
Right then, a blue frosted Duo with flour smudges on his face came barreling out of the door with Wufei right behind him, who was all decked out with feathers, chocolate, and green frosting. The two continued their warfare in the lobby, ignoring that they both had customers in the bakery.  
  
"Um...Relena...you better find some cover NOW!!!" Quatre pulled her over towards a counter as they watched the two bakers squirt endless icing at each other along with small handfuls of flour.  
  
"I can see why you were hit with flour in the first place. We can't even leave, since these two are blocking the main entrance. I don't think we should risk going through the kitchen because after seeing them, the kitchen would look more like a disaster zone of bakery ingredients." She looked towards Quatre, who was scrounging around for something that he could use in his own defense. "What are you doing?"  
  
"I'm trying to find something that I could use, just in case they aim something as us." He crouched on his arms and crawled to one of the cabinets that was situated close to the floor. He peeped inside and to his amazement, he found a small stash of flour. "This is going to be good."  
  
"Now Quatre, don't you do anything that you'll regret."  
  
"I'll be careful." He got up and entered the crossfire between the angry bakers and threw flour in their faces, but that didn't have any effect on them. Before he knew it, Quatre was dusted himself and he was hit with green icing. He crawled back the hiding spot, where Relena was at.  
  
"I warned you. We need to stop this somehow."   
  
"Well, don't look at me...look where it got me." Relena eventually left Quatre's side and made her way to the bickering bakers.  
  
"Why did you do that for?" asked Duo.  
  
"He's not my problem. This problem is between you and me." Wufei then changed his pastry bag to another one that was filled with red. "Looking for this?!"  
  
Duo picked around his pockets with his eyes widening, "Oh no, that's mine!"  
  
"Well, finder's keepers. I think the odds are even now, since your blue pastry bag is now empty, I presume." Wufei fired a spray of red icing at Duo.  
  
"Stop it you, two. Can't you see that you're making a mess of things!"  
  
"Stay out of this WOMAN." Wufei fired another spray of red icing meant for Relena, even though he didn't know whom he was talking to.  
  
Before she had any time to react, she was knocked to the floor. When she looked up, flashes of light came through the bakery's window, as the reporters sent their cameras into overdrive for their main story.  
  
"Heero," she whispered. She noticed that his shirt was stained with the red icing. He pulled her up from the floor. "Thanks," she blushed in response.  
  
Quatre then yelled in horror, "The CAKE!!!" He began to cringe as he saw the two stained bakers inch closer to the white box.  
  
Heero's face then dropped in agitation and knew that his mission was far from over.  
  
TBC  
*****  
  
Will Heero save the cake in time? Until next time!!! ^^ 


	15. A Taste of Revenge

Hi everyone, thanks for the reviews again. Disclaimers go as usual. Anyhow, here's chapter 15, and enjoy!!! ^^  
  
*****  
  
A Taste of Revenge  
  
Heero had to make a split second decision with all the craziness that was going on within the bakery, and with that, he pulled out his gun in his back pocket in hopes of bringing some order back into the bakery. He pulled the trigger back and a single shot was fired into the ceiling, creating a noticeable hole. A wave of silence washed across everyone and even the reporters from the window backed away for the fear of their own lives. Duo was just an inch away from Relena's birthday cake with his left foot just right above the box. Heero quickly slid to where the box was and moved it out of harm's way from Duo's imposing step.  
  
Duo and Wufei blinked at each other before realizing that they both went overboard in their bakery fight. The two noticed two familiar faces within the room, but they couldn't draw a connection to Relena until it finally dawned on them that she was a foreign ambassador. Duo finally broke the silence, "A thousand pardons for our mess, Ms. Peacecraft." And being the flirt he was, he came over to her and dusted the flour that landed on her shoulders. "I'm truly sorry about this incident and so is my partner." Heero watched suspiciously and eventually grabbed Relena to another part of the room with a gun still present in front of Duo, as a sign to stay away.  
  
"Well, I hope you two are happy for making a mess of everything. You can expect Ms. Peacecraft of not patronizing your bakery in the future because of this fiasco," exclaimed Quatre.   
  
Wufei then tried to calm Quatre, "Can we offer you something like coffee?"  
  
"Thanks, but no thanks. Besides, your coffee tastes horrible here."   
  
With that as an insult, fire raged through Wufei's eyes, since he's normally the one to brew the coffee in the bakery. He was about to launch a small handful of flour at Quatre, but Heero noticed it.  
  
"Drop it!"   
  
Wufei slowly let the flour fall out of his hands, since he didn't want to cause any more trouble than Duo has already created. He watched the three customers leave the bakery and afterwards, he turned towards to Duo, who looked like he was guilty of another crime. "Duo..."  
  
"Uh...oh," he gave a guilty grin and ran quickly to the kitchen before Wufei could retaliate on him.  
  
"I'll get you for that!" The two continued to battle into the late hours of the night.  
  
*****  
  
Outside in the night air, the three were still pursued by Treize's reporters with continual flashes from their cameras. Unknown to the reporters, Heero had a final trick up his sleeve, which involved a pastry bag that he had found on the floor of the bakery before he left with Relena and Quatre.   
  
Quatre noticed the pastry bag, "Um...Heero...why are you carrying that with you?"  
  
"I'm going to stop these annoying reporters." He ordered Quatre and Relena to continue walking towards Trowa's car with the box, while he would remain off somewhere in the shadows for those nosy reporters. After he had watched Relena and Quatre turn around the corner, he hid behind a small alley behind a small dumpster, as he heard footsteps approaching towards his location.   
  
"Where do you think they went to?"  
  
"They couldn't have gone too far," replied cupcake #1. "Everyone follow me."  
  
Heero locked onto his multiple targets and he slowly appeared behind them.   
  
"Do you hear anything behind us?" asked one of the photographers. "I think someone is following us."  
  
Before anyone could reply, the group felt something sticky hit their backs and they noticed that they were covered in red.   
  
"What!! We've been ambushed!! Everyone scatter and get back to the vans ASAP!"   
  
One by one, the group tried to disband, but Heero managed to sneak up on each member and dismantled their cameras along with the incriminating films, except for cupcake #1, who tried to outrun Heero on the Canadian streets. Then in one swoop, Heero tackled the reporter to the ground and asked him where the camera was. All cupcake #1 could do was point to his demolished camera. In less than a second, Heero pried the film compartment lose and ripped the black film into pieces. Heero then grabbed the reporter by the collar, "This is for messing the wrong person." With that, he threw the reporter back down and went on his way. All in all, he destroyed five films and he finally got his revenge on the unknown newsgroup that published his picture.   
  
He walked towards Trowa's car and found that everyone was still waiting for him. He noticed that Quatre was being a little too protective of the box holding Relena's birthday cake. "So how did it go?" asked Relena.  
  
"Mission completed," replied Heero in his casual monotone voice. He then took the box from Quatre's arms and continued his usual routine of taking Relena home for the night.  
  
"What's in the box?" asked Relena.  
  
Heero responded, "None of your business."   
  
During the car ride, Heero and Quatre were making signals to one another about the cake situation. "You should take it, I told you before," whispered Quatre.  
  
"Yeah...but I don't think it's going to make another 30 minutes, because the frosting may melt off since parts of it is made of whipped cream."  
  
"Fine we'll do paper, scissors, and rocks then, to settle the score."  
  
"Fine."  
  
  
  
The two men then played one game of paper, scissors, and rocks, in which Heero won.  
  
"What are you two up to?"  
  
"Oh nothing, just nothing...Relena."  
  
"Whatever you say, Quatre."  
  
"That was a close one."  
  
"I heard that. Can't a girl get some sleep around here."  
  
Quatre then shrugged to Heero and took the box from him. The car eventually pulled up into a driveway. "Good night then." He managed to carry the box up the driveway and after juggling the box with one hand, he punched in the garage combination code to enter.  
  
Trowa eventually made his way to Relena's residence, and by the time the car had pulled up into the long driveway, Relena was about to doze off.  
  
"I guess I'll walk you home." He was the first one to step out of the car and took Relena by the hand and led her out into the night air. The two remained silent until they reached the front patio door. "I'll see you tomorrow then at my usual post."   
  
"Do you want to stay for the night? It wouldn't be any trouble at all...it's getting late."  
  
"Um..."  
  
*****  
  
"What happened to all of you?" asked Treize with an appalled look to his staff members that were colored in red icing.  
  
Cupcake #1 responded, "We were ambushed by the unknown security guard. He destroyed all of our films." He then placed his demolished Cannon camera on Treize's desk.  
  
"Not just quite yet," a feminine voice was heard. "I have the films, you wanted." She handed Treize the newly developed pictures of Relena's bakery fiasco along with Quatre and Heero. "My sources say that the man covered in the flour is Relena's advisor, Quatre Winner. But in this photo with the security guard on top of Ms. Peacecraft, his name is Heero Yuy."  
  
"Nice work, Lady. The pieces of the puzzle are finally completed then." He called out to the rest of the staff members, "Everybody, let's start making our midnight deadline." With that, all of the staff members filed out of Treize's office except for Lady. "I knew I could count on you."  
  
"What can I say," she was interrupted by a kiss. "I guess we'll have this photo of Ms. Peacecraft with Mr. Yuy on our front pages for tomorrow then."  
  
"It sounds good to me."  
  
*****  
  
The sunlight filtered slowly through the window at Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery. Both of the bakers were asleep behind the display cases, each of them had more chocolate and strawberry stains on their aprons.   
  
"I wonder where on earth could Duo be? He was supposed to be home by 11:00." Hilde continued to walk down the street towards the bakery. After walking about five minutes, she peeped through the bakery window and found a sight that she didn't believe. The bakery was in total disarray with frosting and chocolate stains on the walls. The flours and ceilings were dusted with flour, sugar, and baking powder. "What happened here?" She decided that Duo was somehow behind this and before long, she stepped inside to find her love. "Duo...are you in here?" She heard a groan coming from the left display case and to her amazement, she found Duo lying on the floor with his Viking hat in his hand.   
  
"Did I win?"   
  
"I don't know, but you and Wufei sure made a mess of this bakery. It's going to take days to clean up this mess. I missed you last night. How come you didn't call me?"  
  
"I was busy here."  
  
"I can see that."   
  
Duo then took Hilde into his arms and placed a slight dusting of flour on her nose. "I think my bakery days are over for now."  
  
"Well...I'm not too sure." She then threw a small handful of flour back at Duo.  
  
The two were having their mini flour fight, when Wufei awoke. "What's going on in here?"  
  
"Hey partner, have a nice snooze?"  
  
"Funny." He snickered at them. He began to examine the damage that Duo and him caused to the bakery. Right then, Sally had entered the bakery with a box of ingredients for her customers.  
  
"What happened here?"  
  
Wufei replied, "Don't ask."  
  
Duo then interrupted the two, "Let's just call it a temporary truce. I mean obviously we both can do serious damage with the flour and chocolate."  
  
"Agreed." With that, the two shook hands but not before Duo decided to have one final trick up his sleeves. He had place a small plastic bag of melted chocolate in his hands that had a hole in it.   
  
Wufei showed a distorted look on his face, "I didn't know that you had sweaty and sticky palms, Maxwell."  
  
"You sure about that, Wufei?"  
  
Wufei then looked down towards his right hand and noticed the chocolate oozing from his fingers. "I'll get you for that one."  
  
"Not yet, don't forget that we're on a temporary truce," shaking his finger at Wufei.  
  
*****  
  
Across the town, everyone was already running about the embassy preparing for the big day of Relena's birthday. Aidan and Riley were on their separate tasks of busying themselves with the decorations, while other staff members were busy finishing up their last minute proposals for upcoming meetings. No one even noticed that the birthday girl was missing from the morning's activities along with a known security guard.  
  
Back at Quatre's home, he was making a fresh pot of coffee when he pulled out the morning papers. He was sipping a glass of orange juice when his eyes noticed a peculiar picture of Relena and Heero on the front page. He immediately spat the orange juice out of his mouth, "Relena is not going to like this." He continued to read the headlines, "Relena and Her Secret Lover...The Inside Story." He walked over to one of the kitchen phones and called the embassy to see if Relena was there yet. The phone on the other end ranged endlessly until a familiar voice was heard on the other end.  
  
"Aidan, is Relena in yet?"  
  
"No, she isn't in yet. Why?"  
  
"Who picked up the morning newspapers today?"  
  
"Me."  
  
"Did you look at them yet?"  
  
"No, but should I?"  
  
"DON'T!!" he screamed on the phone, which made Aidan's eardrums ring in pain.   
  
Usually when Quatre screams on the phone about an order, Aidan knows that something is up, and before Quatre could do anything about it, he heard papers shuffling in the background. "Oh no, this is not good. Why is there a picture of Relena and Heero on the front page?"  
  
"You found out." Quatre then tapped his head slightly on the wall in frustration. In the background, other staff members could be heard and the secret about Relena and Heero was finally out. "Don't tell me, the rest of the staff knows too."  
  
"Yep. What do you want me to do...unplug the phones lines?"  
  
"That won't do, we'll just let this story run its course, it's out of my control now." He hung the phone and prepared for the day, knowing that he'll be manning the switchboard. "Here we go again."  
  
TBC  
  
*****  
  
Will Relena find out about her candid photo in the newspaper? What was Heero's decision? Will Relena's surprise party go off without a hitch? Let me know what you think, I always appreciate your comments and thanks. ^_^ Until then, ciao!! 


	16. Surprise

Hi everyone, thanks for the reviews. Disclaimers go as usual. Anyhow, hope you all like this and enjoy!!  
  
*****  
  
Surprise  
  
A red stained shirt and a silk blouse dotted the carpet floor of Relena's bedroom. Heero awoke next to a sleeping Relena, who lay beside him. He gently stroked her long hair that covered her bare shoulders and stared at her for minutes, just watching her breath. He wanted to tell her something, but every time he had the chance, he would just botch it up. All he could do was watch her every move and protect her at any costs even from a mad crazy baker.   
  
Relena slowly opened her eyes, "And what are you up to on this fine morning?" She had caught Heero off his guard.  
  
"Nothing." His Persian eyes kept searching for something in her eyes that would give him a spark of inspiration. "I need to tell you something." Relena then shifted herself closer to him. "I..."  
  
"Morning sleepyhead," as Relena greeted Heero from her kitchen. She was already dressed in her usual blouse and skirt attire.   
  
Heero had decided to sleep on the couch for the night as a makeshift bed. He didn't want to become too personal with Relena, even though she was driving him crazy in his dreams. During the night, he would spy on her to see if she was okay and seeing her sleep, just drove him to the brink of insanity. Heero fished around for his red-stained shirt, but he couldn't find it anywhere. He was wearing his green tank top and spandex shorts.  
  
"Where's my shirt and pants?"  
  
Relena pointed to a couch nearby him and to his amazement, the red stains on the back were gone. He figured that Relena took the liberty of washing his clothes. He nodded thanks to her. With that, he quickly dressed himself and walked over to where Relena was standing in the kitchen, sipping a cup of coffee. "Where's the morning paper?"  
  
"It's on the counter, where the toaster is. I didn't even have a chance to look at it."  
  
Heero sluggishly walked over to the counter and to his amazement, he saw a photo of Relena and him at Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery.   
  
Relena noticed a change in Heero's mood, "What's wrong?"  
  
"I don't know if I should show this to you, but..." He lifted the front page to her eyes and right then, Relena was shocked and she then fainted.  
  
After nearly catching her and carrying her over to a couch, Relena slowly opened her eyes, "How in the world did they get that photo? I thought you said that you got every reporter/photographer that was there."  
  
"I guess not."  
  
Relena began to become frantic and paced around the family room to collect her thoughts. "I guess it's time to face the music. But, how are we going to get to the embassy in the first place and dodge all of the reporters that want to get their story?"  
  
Heero contemplated to himself about the situation, and with him staying at Relena's for the night wasn't going to help at all. It would just add more gossip to the story that was already showcased in the morning's papers.  
  
Relena then proposed a possible option, "Maybe I should leave first for the embassy and you'll leave 30 minutes after me, just in case any reporters are trying to get their stories."  
  
"Agreed."  
  
With that, the two put their plan into action and in matter of an hour, the two arrived at their destination.  
  
*****  
  
Chaos erupted as the couple emerged in the embassy, with Aidan leading the pack into a frenzy about their picture on the bakery floor. "It looks like you two had an interesting night." He eyed her suspiciously in hopes of getting some answers.  
  
"Drop it, Aidan, we didn't do anything okay. He was just protecting me from a crazy baker."  
  
"You sure. You two seemed to be missing from this morning's activities. If I could tell, he spent the night with you. Didn't he?"  
  
Relena's face then flashed red, "We didn't do anything together and we didn't sleep together. And besides, this is none of your business." She decided to turn the tables on Aidan instead, "And what were you and Riley doing then? I noticed the two of you seemed to be smitten now." Aidan immediately left. "I guess I was right about those two." She smiled to herself and went on through the day with nagging reporters that kept calling endlessly.  
  
While in the meantime, Heero busied himself by scaring reporters on the embassy's premises with his death glare. He even carried the pastry bag from the previous night to ward off the same reporters that tried to cover the story from Treize's group. With the pastry bag in his hand, he snuck up on one of the reporters and before the reporter could get away from Heero's firing range, the reporter ended up being covered in the red gooey substance again. In a matter of minutes, the reporter stumbled out of the bushes and ran for his life again.  
  
By mid-afternoon, the news of Relena's and Heero's love life died down to some degree, even though Quatre sensed the feeling of rings in his ears for hours. But in everyone's minds, they all knew something was forming between Relena and Heero, it was just a matter of time.  
  
*****  
  
"Are we all set for the surprise?" asked Quatre, who was standing about two feet away from Heero's post.  
  
"I guess so."  
  
"We need a diversion of some sort. Hmm...oh Heero..."  
  
"Don't you dare look at me like that," he then gave Quatre a death glare.  
  
"Oh common, it's the only the way to get Relena from her office for just a couple of minutes."  
  
"Fine."  
  
"Okay...I need you to go to the ballroom and lay on the floor, so Relena thinks you're injured for the time being. The room would be dark, but everyone else will be there." With that, he ushered Heero into the ballroom, where everyone took their hiding places with confetti in their hands. Quatre then returned back to Relena's office and shouted, Relena...I need your help quickly...its Heero."  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
Quatre was trying to catch his breath, "He was shot by someone on the premise. I need you to come with me now, he's calling for you."  
  
"But where's the attacker? Is everyone else fine?"  
  
"Trowa reprimanded the man in the parking lot. As for your second question, everyone else is fine. Now come quickly."  
  
Quatre then ushered Relena out of her room and they both entered the darken ballroom. Relena found Heero on the floor pretending to be unconscious, "Heero, can you hear me?" She patted him gently on the face, but he didn't respond. She then examined him to see if there were any gunshots, but the only thing that perplexed her was that no blood was present anywhere. "Heero..."   
  
She felt a hand grab behind her and she looked down onto Heero's face, "Surprise."  
  
"What did you say?" Right then, the whole room burst with light and everyone wished her a happy birthday. "I told you guys not to throw a birthday party for me."  
  
"We knew that you wanted one," replied Quatre. "Thanks for your help, Heero, it worked like a charm."  
  
"You were in on this," cried out Relena.  
  
He nodded in response and walked over to a corner, where no one would notice him during the duration of the party. All he did was watch Relena's every move and see her happiness.  
  
For the next few hours, everyone partied and eventually the cake that Heero had ordered was brought out. The triple roses near the bottom top of the cake were layered to perfection along with the blue calligraphy with Relena's name. Relena then realized why Heero was in the bakery in the first place. "I can't believe that I overlooked a simple detail to my birthday."  
  
"That's why you were going crazy," replied Quatre.  
  
She then blew out the twenty-two candles and made her wishes that she kept to herself.  
  
Eventually, the staff members left along with guests that Quatre sent invitations to. The ballroom was completely empty except the fact that the birthday girl was still there taking in a few moments of solace for herself. She went back to her office to close for the night and she found something that she didn't expect at all. On her desk, there was a brown teddy bear that had a red ribbon wrapped around its neck. On the ribbon, a small diamond ring was attached to it. She gingerly picked up the teddy bear and released the ring from its hold.  
  
"What's your answer?"  
  
Tears welled up in her eyes and she walked up to Heero. She placed the ring into his hands, and with that, she smiled into his Persian eyes. She whispered, "Yes." He gently slided the ring onto her ring finger and for that night, one of Relena's wishes was finally answered.   
  
The two held each other closely in each other's arms, and she softly whispered, "Maybe, we should thank those two crazy bakers at Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery."  
  
*****  
  
Epilogue:  
  
On a quiet afternoon, Duo and Wufei stood underneath the hole that was created by Heero.   
  
"What should we do about that hole in the ceiling?" asked Duo, who was rubbing his chin.  
  
"Beats me. We could fill it up with plaster and have a lighting fixture cover the blemish. The electrical line isn't too far off."  
  
"What lighting fixture do you have in mind?"  
  
"A small chandelier."  
  
"Oh...well how about this one." He held up a cupcake shaped fixture that had a cherry on the top. "I think this brings out the best of the bakery a lot."  
  
"You're no home decorator, you know."  
  
"And neither are you." Wufei became agitated about their "hole situation" and decided to take things into his own hands. He then went into the kitchen and pulled out a ladder from a storage closet. Within minutes, he reappeared with a ladder and white paint.  
  
"What are you up to now?"  
  
"Nothing." He went out the front the door and started to paint over Duo's beautiful bakery sign.   
  
Duo then realized what Wufei was up to and quickly followed him outside, "My beautiful sign. Why you?"   
  
"If your having your lighting fixture up, this sign is mine then."   
  
Duo became agitated at Wufei's compromise and he ran back indoors to find his secret stash of chocolate sauce. By the time he went out again, Wufei was nearly done painting the sign back to a white color. "This is for my sign!!" A spray of chocolate sauce hit Wufei on his back.  
  
"I guess our truce is over." He threw some of the white paint at Duo.  
  
And so the two crazy bakers began another saga of the bakery wars, while bystanders looked on from the surrounding streets.  
  
*****  
  
It's finally finished!! I would like to say thanks for the all the reviews that I've received so far and to the readers who have read this story. I didn't think this story was a hit at first, since it's my first humor fic, but you all have changed my mind. ^_^ Well, take care and thanks again. 


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